When Facebook went to Wall Street

At $104 billion, Facebook's IPO is the largest ever by a technology firm, topping Google's $23 billion valuation back in 2004, and the net proceeds to the company will be $6.4 billion. However, Facebook’s stock rose by mere pennies in its initial public offering.

The performance fell far short of the expectations of Wall Street and Silicon Valley, and raised questions about whether the company's stock will be the sure bet many had counted on.

So what went wrong? Analysts point to a variety of factors that might have given investors pause.

·    Its valuation at about 100 times earnings likely struck some as too high.

·        Its growth in new users is slowing.

·      Facebook has not yet found a way to cash in on mobile devices, where social media is gravitating.

·     It’s largest shareholders moved to maximize their profits at the expense of new investors. For example, a few days before the IPO, Facebook raised the stock's projected price to a range of $34 to $38 from the initial $28 to $35, and priced it at the peak of $38 on Thursday.

·       On Wednesday, the company announced that longtime investors led by Goldman Sachs planned to sell big chunks of their holdings in the IPO. That struck some investors as greedy and a sign that Wall Street insiders were getting out while they could.

2-speed economy

Jack Dikian

Here in Australia we often get told that we are living in a 2-speed economy. There is no doubt that for those individuals and businesses connected to the mining and resources sector times are good.

The graph below is pretty convincing. The number of new housing loans taken out over the past 20 years in Australia looks substantially lower when Western Australia's contribution is taken out.

For resource rich states such as Western Australia and Queensland, the impact of the commodities boom has been profound. Rapid population growth rates fuelled by the boom saw Perth and Brisbane property prices soar over the past decade.

At the end of March 2011 the median house price for Perth was $480,000, compared to $300,000 in 2005 and around $250,000 in 1999.

Source: ABS, Westpac Economics

When Tanner met Blair - a light in dark days

The blind, epileptic golden retriever wound up at the Woodland West Animal Hospital in Tulsa, Okla., after living with two previous owners. Only 2 years old, he suffered from horrifying seizures almost every night and euthanization seemed like the most humane fate for the pooch.

But everything changed when Tanner met Blair, a fearful 1-year-old street dog that ended up at that same clinic after being shot.

"The connection was immediate," according to Dr. Mike Jones, the hospital's director. "It probably did take us a few weeks to kind of go, 'You know what? Tanner's not seizing anymore and Blair is getting [less skittish].'"

Blair acts as a guide dog for Tanner, leading the way by holding his friend's leash in his mouth. And Tanner seems to be a calming influence on Blair, who suffered from anxiety after being shot. Over the past few months, everyone at the clinic has watched their unique friendship blossom.

Take a look

http://newsblaze.com/story/20120502193119reye.nb/topstory.html