Mr. IPO: Facebook could be a dangerous bet

One year ago tomorrow, social networking phenomenon Facebook went public in one of the most highly anticipated initial public offerings of the last decade. Leading up to the IPO, which valued the company at a whopping $104 billion — or 100 times earnings — the hype was intense. Facebook, market prognosticators predicted, would soar in the first day of trading, generating easy gains for the investors who rushed for a piece of the action.

By Investment U: By Jason Jenkins Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few months, you know that Facebook (FB) has filed its initial paperwork with regulators for its initial public offering (IPO). And they’ve hired five underwriters for the job, with Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) taking the lead role.

Renren, dubbed China’s version of Facebook, completed an impressive initial public offering earlier this month.

By Robert Broens: The initial public offering market has seen a strong start to 2012 as many companies got themselves a listing before the much anticipated and totally failed public offering of Facebook (FB) on the 18th of May. Public Offerings pushed forward

By John Reese:Facebook, Groupon, Zynga -- the past year has been a rough one for some high profile initial public offerings. Since its IPO last November, Groupon's shares have tumbled more than 80%. Zynga, which went public a month later, is down nearly 70% since its IPO. And Facebook, the most ballyhooed of the bunch, has seen its shares fall about 50% since its May IPO.

ByPeter Harengel:The first mover advantage has been one of the great myth of innovation. The same has proven to be true with the recent initial public offerings (IPO) of companies in the social media sector.

By Robert Broens: With the much anticipated IPO of Facebook (FB) happening soon, let's have a look at how some recent initial public offerings have fared. I selected five names which have gone public this year and are valued at $500 million or more.