Mark Cuban, who has been a steadfast supporter of Facebook throughout the IPO process, and an investor who purchased 150,000 shares of the company, is coming forward today to say he was wrong about the company.
He has decided to sell off his huge collection of Facebook shares and is now saying it just isn’t a good investment. Ouch! That has to hurt Facebook in the eyes of investors.
Just this morning I wrote an article where Cuban offered his insight on how Facebook has what it takes to overcome the challenges ahead to become a valuable investment. Now he’s saying it’s best to get out when the gettin’ is good.
Essentially, Cuban says Facebook just issued too many shares of stock and in the process made themselves a lot less valuable. If they would have spread themselves thin, the market for Facebook shares would look a lot different today.
Financial guru Mark Cuban comments on his decision to sell off his shares of Facebook:
“I already sold it, I took my hit, my thesis was wrong. I thought we would get a quick bounce just about the excitement about the stock. I was wrong, and when you are wrong you don’t wait, you just get out. So I took a beating and left,”
“I mean if you look at other companies like LinkedIn, they issued 8.4 million shares and the stock skyrocketed. If Facebook would have come out with 8.4 million shares, instead of 421 million, the stock would be at about $200 right now. So it was just the circumstances that led to me getting in and out,”
He also admits it’s not just Facebook, that everybody is dealing with the same problems; how to monetize advertising? Also, he believes there will be be an increase in monetizing mobile, but it’s a challenge every internet company will have to face.
The good news for Facebook and their investors is that stock climbed to over $32 today on the Nasdaq. In fact, shares of the company have rose 20% since their $25.52 low on June 6th. We’ll see what happens.