Financial News Wed May 23rd 2012 – Facebook IPO, Greek Exit, Shakil Afridi


Financial News Wed May 23rd 2012 – Facebook IPO, Greek Exit, Shakil Afridi

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    The Wall Street Journal reports, Facebook shares rose as the stock seeks to reverse its two-day losing streak. Facebook lost 19% of its value over the last two days, as investors sought to make sense of what led to the company’s disappointing IPO. Bankers on the deal lowered their earnings estimate in the middle of the share sale, even as the company decided to increase the size of the offering. The mess has now led to the filing of several lawsuits, against Facebook and Morgan Stanley, as well as regulatory agencies saying, they plan to investigate the handling of the most heavily traded IPO ever. Some analysts on Wall Street have called the stock’s two-day slide overblown. Needham Research initiated coverage today on Facebook with a $40 price target—$2 above the company’s IPO price—noting the massive amount of time, users spend on the network. Gotta admit I am one of them!
    Reuters reports, Euro zone officials have told members of the currency area, to prepare contingency plans in case Greece decides to quit the bloc, an eventuality which Germany’s central bank said, would be “manageable”. Three officials said, the instruction was agreed on Monday, by a teleconference of the Eurogroup Working Group – experts who work on behalf of the bloc’s finance ministers. The news comes at a highly sensitive time, just hours before EU leaders gather to try to breathe life into their struggling economies, at a summit over dinner on Wednesday.
    Bloomberg reports, A Pakistani doctor who helped the U.S. track down Osama bin Laden, has been sentenced to 33 years in jail after being found guilty of treason and working for a foreign intelligence agency. Afridi was charged with running a fake vaccination program in Abbottabad, the Pakistani army cantonment town where the al- Qaeda leader hid for as long as five years, in an effort to obtain a DNA sample from those living in the compound where bin Laden was eventually shot dead by Navy SEALs last May. Today’s sentence may further strain ties between Pakistan and the Obama administration, which has called for Afridi to be freed and allowed to live in the U.S.

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