Facebook Falls After Lockup Expiration Boosts Available Shares

Facebook Inc. (FB) fell the most in almost three months after a lockup expiration boosted the number of tradeable shares available by about 156 million.

The stock tumbed 5.1 percent to $26.81 at the close in New York, the biggest drop since Sept. 24. Menlo Park, California- based Facebook has lost 29 percent since selling shares at $38 apiece in an initial public offering in May.

The bans on sales are put in place to prevent shares from flooding the market immediately after an IPO. The biggest lockup expiration to date was on Nov. 14, when restrictions lifted on 804 million shares. Smaller batches of stock became tradeable in August and October, and the next lockup lifts in May, according to a regulatory filing.

Facebook reported fourth-quarter earnings of 17 cents a share on revenue of $1.58 billion.

Analysts had expected the company to report earnings excluding items of 15 cents a share on $1.53 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.

Facebook is giving users yet another way to give gifts to friends.

The social media company on Thursday rolled out the Facebook Card, which a user can send to a friend as a gift.

The friend will get the card in the mail and be able to use it to go shopping or go out for meals or a drink at such places as Jamba Juice, Olive Garden and Target, Facebook said in a company blog post.

"Facebook Cards are reusable," the post said. "After you've received a card, the next time you get a Facebook Card gift, it will instantly be added to your existing card. Your card can hold multiple gift balances, and each balance is dedicated to the retailer associated with the gift."

Facebook announced its Gifts feature last year. But while analysts were excited about its possibilities when it came out, Facebook said Gifts hasn't exactly become a big money-maker. Or not yet.

On a call with analyst, Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman said, "While we remain excited about the long-term potential of commerce on Facebook, current revenue from user promoted posts and Gifts is very small. And we expect 2013 contributions from these initiatives to remain very small, given current run rates."

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/facebo...190300801.html

Too busy, boring, drama, gossip, waste of time

Around two-thirds of all online Americans use Facebook, but nearly two-thirds of those report having taken long breaks from the social network, while others have already given up on it, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center.

In the study's findings published on Tuesday, 61 per cent of current Facebook users said that at one time or another they had voluntarily taken a break from the site that lasted several weeks or more.

Furthermore, of those internet users surveyed who said they weren't on Facebook, 20 per cent reported that they had once used it but no longer do.

Both groups cited similar reasons for walking away. But while you might assume that privacy concerns or excessive advertising would be foremost among them, that wasn't the case. In fact, only 4 per cent of respondents cited those reasons – fewer than the number who said they had taken a break "for no real reason" or "just because."

As it happens, the top reason given for taking a "Facebook vacation" was that the site demanded too much attention, with 21 per cent of respondents reporting that they were too busy or didn't have time for it. Similarly, another 8 per cent said they took a break because they were spending too much time on the site.

"You get burned out on it after a while," one survey respondent wrote, while another said, "I took a break when it got boring." The latter sentiment was shared by 7 per cent of those surveyed.

Other respondents were more critical of Facebook and what it had to offer. Facebook's content was perceived as being irrelevant or "a waste of time" by 10 per cent of those surveyed, while another 10 per cent reported that they either didn't like the site or just weren't interested.

Another 9 per cent reported that there was too much conflict, negativity, gossip, or "drama" on Facebook. One former user who had quit the social network reported getting "tired of minding everybody else's business," while another said, "[I had] crazy friends. I did not want to be contacted."

Facebook Inc. says it was the target of hackers but no user information was compromised during the attack.

The social media giant said Friday on its security blog that the company discovered in January that its system had been targeted in a sophisticated attack. A handful of the company's employees visited a developer's website that had been compromised, which led to malware being installed on the Facebook employee laptops.

Facebook says it has found no evidence that user data was compromised.

The company has fixed the infected machines, informed law enforcement and has an investigation of its own under way. Facebook also says it was not the only company targeted in the attacks but was one of the first to discover it.

"We are working continuously and closely with our own internal engineering teams, with security teams at other companies, and with law enforcement authorities to learn everything we can about the attack, and how to prevent similar incidents in the future," the company said on its website.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/facebo...221836648.html

American teenagers have "waning enthusiasm" for Facebook, but they're still using the social network while upping their time spent on other social media sites like Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Tumblr, according to a new study.

The Facebook diss is because of the "increasing adult presence, people sharing excessively and stressful 'drama' " on the site, says the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. But teens "keep using" Facebook because "participation is an important part of overall teenage socializing."

Facebook takes a bit of umbrage at the finding, albeit politely."We are always focused on making Facebook a great experience; and we're gratified that more than 1 billion people, including enormous numbers of young people, are using Facebook to connect and share," a spokesman said in a statement to TODAY. "As we recently announced, 665 million people use Facebook daily, and over 750 million people are now accessing Facebook on mobile devices."

Indeed, 94 percent of teen social media users interviewed by Pew say they have a Facebook profile, and that it's the social media profile they use most often. But teens are starting to "diversify" their social media diet, says Pew in its report,"Teens, Social Media and Privacy."

More teens are starting to gravitate to Twitter; 24 percent of online teens use it, up from 16 percent in 2011, says Pew,but only 7 percent say it's the social media profile they use the most. Another 11 percent have an Instagram account, but only 3 percent says that is the social media profile they use most often. (Instagram was bought by Facebook last year.)

Pew notesthat 70 percent of teenagers on Facebook are "friends" with their parents, and 76 percent are "friends" with their siblings. Contrary to what you might think, many of them aren't trying to hide what they share with with family members by blocking information that's posted, the study found.

Only "18 percent say that they limit what certain friends can see on their profile," Pew said. "The vast majority (81 percent) say that all of their friends see the same thing on their profile. This approach also extends to parents; only 5 percent of teen Facebook users say they limit what their parents can see."

Teens are also relatively comfortable with managing their Facebook privacy settings, unlike many adults; 60 percent of teens say they keep their profiles private, and "most report high levels of confidence in their ability to manage their settings," Pew says.

The findings are based on a nationally representative phone survey of 802 teens, ages 12 to 17, done between July and September 2012.

Teens who use sites like Twitter and Instagram "reported feeling like they could better express themselves on these platforms, where they felt freed from the social expectations and constraints of Facebook," Pew says.

And they're not the only ones reacting to those "social expectations." Some adults, too, are gussying up photos and life experiences to match what they think followers will want to see or "like."