After smart opening, FB fizzles on debut High Volumes Cause Technical Problems

San Francisco: Facebook shares rose less than expected on their first day of trade on Friday and huge order volume caused technical problems that marred the coming out party of the No. 1 online social network. 

    Its shares were up 8% in early afternoon trading on the Nasdaq, after opening 11% higher and then rapidly heading south to touch their initial public offering price of $38. The gains were below market forecasts of as much as a 50% jump. 

    "We have got some unhappy guys out there," said Wayne Kaufman, chief market strategist at John Thomas Financial, a retail broker on Wall Street. "They were hoping for Facebook to be considerably better. I bet there are a lot of disappointed people in the market." 

    Facebook, which has about 900 million users globally, priced its IPO at the top end of its target range, becoming the first US company to go public with a valuation greater than $100 billion. If a greenshoe option to underwriters is exercised, Facebook will raise as much as $18.4 billion by selling an 18% stake, the second-biggest IPO in US history after the one by Visa Inc. 

    Analysts blamed the poorer-than-expected first-day showing on the vast number of shares floated and market weakness. General Motors' decision to pull paid-advertising from the social network, announced this week, also hurt. After a delay in the opening print that drove up anxiety levels among traders and onlookers outside the Nasdaq, the closely watched stock began trading at $42.05, rose to as high as $45 and then rapidly retreated. The Nasdaq exchange said it was investigating an issue with execution of trades. 

    Facebook's IPO had been heavily oversubscribed, particularly by retail investors, despite concerns about slowing growth in the last quarter, whether the company can make money from mobile advertising, and the immense control chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has over on the company. 

    Others warned that the IPO price, equivalent to over 100 times historical earnings versus Apple's 14 times and Google's 19 times, makes Facebook a risky bet. For Facebook, Friday began with much fanfare. To rapturous applause from employees, Mark Zuckerberg— flanked by COO Sheryl Sandberg and Nasdaq CEO Robert Greifeld—rang the bell to kick off trading at the company's Silicon Valley headquarters at 6:30 am Pacific time. The 28-year-old billionaire founder, wearing his trademark black hoodie, hugged and high-fived Sandberg and other employees in celebration after he pressed the remote button. AGENCIES Co-founded by Indian, Lightbox in Facebook kitty 

Washington:Social media giant Facebook has bought another photo application named Lightbox, after recently shelling out over a billion dollars on Instagram. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg purchased London firm Lightbox for his networking site company, which makes a photo app for Android phones. 

    "We started Lightbox because we were excited about creating new services built primarily for mobile, especially for the Android and HTML5 platforms, and we're honored that millions of you have downloaded the Lightbox Photos app and shared your experiences with the Lightbox community," the Daily Mail quoted Lightbox's founders Thai Tran and Nilesh Patel as saying. 

    The move, which came just hours before Facebook becomes a public company, will see the firm's staff moving to Silicon Valley. 

    In a statement released by Facebook, it said, "Today, we're happy to announce that the Lightbox team is joining Facebook, where we'll have the opportunity to build amazing products for Facebook's 500+ million mobile users. The Lightbox team has incredible experience developing innovative mobile products that people love. We look forward to welcoming this world-class team of engineers to Facebook." 

    Facebook also recently bought Glancee, a 'social discovery' app that shows the user when people with similar interest and friends are nearby. AGENCIES