The fallout over Facebook's weakly received IPO continues. From AP:
Facebook is in talks with the New York Stock Exchange to move its stock from the Nasdaq Stock Market after a botched initial public offering on Friday, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Facebook's much-anticipated IPO was delayed by a half-hour on Friday because of glitches on the Nasdaq.
After pricing at $38, Facebook's stock closed up 23 cents on Friday and has been down since. On Wednesday, it closed up $1, at $32, still down nearly 16 percent from the IPO price.
The news was reported earlier by Reuters.
Here's Bloomberg TV's Cory Johnson discussing the reported switcheroo. Johnson says, "I'm gonna go out on a limb here: I've never heard of anything like this, right after an IPO a company considering another listing. [But] there's never been a listing as screwed up as this was on the Nasdaq."
Last week, after the Facebook IPO landed with a thud, we talked to Sam Hamadeh, CEO of IPO research firm PrivCo, who had earlier given us seven reasons to avoid Facebook stock, at least initially. He predicted there was going to be some finger-pointing this week, though he thought the shoe may be on the other foot in terms of Facebook vs. Nasdaq...
Morgan Stanley looks horrible right now. The Nasdaq looks horrible. There are people who own IPO shares or bought this morning – they haven't even received trade confirmations yet. There are millions of shares traded that aren't even technically cleared yet.
Nasdaq did make extra efforts to do a dress rehearsal, looping in all of the regional exchanges affiliated with it. But even with that you had some major hiccups, the trades not clearing, the delay in the opening, the Zynga flash crash.
Morgan Stanley's embarrassed, Nasdaq's embarrassed. I think they're going to blame Facebook. They'll say these guys were pulled kicking and screaming into this process. Mark Zuckerberg only showed up for two of the roadshow stops and barely took questions. He didn't even bother to put on a dress shirt.
Following Facebook's initial failure-to-launch, things have not gotten any better. The stock continued to drop (it finally finished up today), and reports that lead underwriter Morgan Stanley revealed its reduced revenue forecast to select clients before the IPO drew the concern of both federal regulators and the U.S. Senate Banking Committee. (Yesterday, various news outlets reported that Facebook itself gave this guidance to Morgan Stanley analysts.) And of course, there's a lawsuit.