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If I Had a Billion Dollars

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Watching Facebook drop by 20% shows you how much greed was involved in this inside deal.

It would be nice to think the deactivation of the Richardcyoung.com Facebook page and my personal account are part of the reason why the stock is falling. Many who try Facebook’s service are initially pleased but soon find it to be boring and tedious and head for the exit. The same is apparently true for the company’s stock. But nevertheless, I’ve been uncomfortable with Facebook from the beginning. The idea of telling people—I mean my “friends” who I have never even met—what I’m doing or my kids are doing has felt weird. And in terms of investing in the company, what is it exactly that Facebook does? Sell ads? I thought Google was doing that. Talk about spreading those crumbs around.

The IPO valuation slapped on this pig was absurd. The road show by CEO Zuckerberg was full of hubris on the part of all parties involved. The way they cashed out was like a mass exodus, leaving average investors stuck with the shares. How’s that for senior leadership from Facebook insiders? In his piece “7 Reasons Why Facebook IPO Was A Bust” Rich Karlgaard writes at Forbes.com:

2. Mark Zuckerberg’s disdain for investors. He never wanted to be a public company. This became all too obvious during the IPO road show’s crucial stop in New York when (a) Zuck hid out in the bathroom and forced the audience to wait, and (b) he took the stage wearing his hoodie. Zuckerberg’s view of shareholders is like President Obama’s view of blue collar workers. He needs them but secretly laughs at them.

You’ll want to read the rest here.

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

Preparing your investments and family for when disaster strikes.
E.J. Smith is the Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH, where he completed course-work in Practical and Defensive Handgun, Conceal Carry Pistol, Shotguns, Precision Scope Rifle and Kidnapping Prevention. E.J. plays a Yamaha Recording Custom drum set with Zilldjian cymbals. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@youngresearch.com. Sign up here to receive all the best content from Richardcyoung.com each week.

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