The Securities and Exchange Commission Monday approved a revised $62 million settlement by Nasdaq parent Nasdaq OMX Group over technical issues that marred Facebook’s May 18 initial public offering, Reuters reported.
Game developer Zynga and Facebook, once virtually intertwined, continue to drift further apart from each other, as Zynga announced in a post on its blog that while login with Facebook will still be an option for game players, it will no longer be a requirement starting next week.
Craig Berkman, a finance manager in Florida and former Oregon gubernatorial candidate, was hit with fraud charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement division over what regulators called a Ponzi-like scheme that promised but never delivered pre-initial public offering shares of Facebook and other companies.
Facebook Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman spoke about a “formidable competitor” at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, & Telecom Conference in San Francisco Wednesday, but the social network happens to own that competitor: photo-sharing application Instagram.
Facebook shares were involved in some large transactions in recent days, with moves by Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, board member Peter Thiel, and Russian Internet company Mail.ru Group making the news.
Facebook board member Jim Breyer of Accel Partners sold 2.52 million Facebook shares, netting him $74.1 million, according to reports.
It appears that Nasdaq is about to be punished for its mishandling of Facebook’s initial public offering last year. However, as The Wall Street Journal reports, it’s more of a slap on the wrist than a major penalty.
There were more than 50 million Facebook pages with at least 10 likes as of Dec. 31, 2012, and some 10 million applications were using the social network’s platform, according to its annual form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission following the release of its fourth-quarter earnings report last week.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings appeared on CNBC Thursday morning, where he spoke with Julia Boorstin about the Securities and Exchange Commission’s investigation of his Facebook post about Netflix topping 1 billion hours of viewership in June.
A few Facebook executives rang in the new year by selling off some of their stock in the company, making a tidy sum in the process. Facebook board member Donald Graham, Vice President of Engineering Michael Schroepfer, General Counsel Ted Ullyot, and Chief Accounting Officer David Spillane all sold some of their social network stock in the past few days, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. And Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg converted a portion of her shares from class-B to class-A, making them easier to sell.
