Facebook Fallout Includes PR Fail

SAN FRANCISCO, June 11 (Reuters) - Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg faced a barrage of questions on Tuesday about the company's slumping stock price during the No. 1 social networking company's first shareholder meeting since its rocky initial public offering last May.

By Kofi Bofah:I recently opined, in this April 8, 2012 article, that I expected this looming Facebook (FB) initial public offering to be a train wreck for small, retail investors. I argued that Facebook would be coming to market amid a perfect storm of cheap money, irrational exuberance, and slap happy promotion.

Lucy Nicholson/Reuters Young investors are piling into Snap.

Lucy Nicholson/Reuters Young investors are piling into Snap.

Michael Kovac / Getty ImagesSnapchat's parent company Snap Inc. set in motion what could be the biggest tech flotation in years by revealing that it generates over $400 million in annual sales and has 158 million people using its namesake app on a daily basis.

REUTERS/Mike Blake

Facebook‘s intensely hyped initial public offering one year ago today was supposed to be a triumphant moment for Silicon Valley and Wall Street. After years of buildup and a valuation that had ballooned to $100 billion, ordinary investors would finally get the chance to own a slice of the hottest tech company on the planet. In the weeks leading up to the IPO, many tech experts — including some of the most prominent venture capitalists in the country — repeatedly insisted that once public, Facebook’s stock price would soar beyond the $38 per share offering price.

Facebook‘s intensely hyped initial public offering one year ago today was supposed to be a triumphant moment for Silicon Valley and Wall Street. After years of buildup and a valuation that had ballooned to $100 billion, ordinary investors would finally get the chance to own a slice of the hottest tech company on the planet. In the weeks leading up to the IPO, many tech experts — including some of the most prominent venture capitalists in the country — repeatedly insisted that once public, Facebook’s stock price would soar beyond the $38 per share offering price.