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Who is really to blame for Facebook's soft IPO?

Who is really to blame for Facebook's soft IPO?

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Some argue Facebook's IPO was far from a success, and DealBook has an idea of who should be held liable for the mistakes.

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The technology and financial industries were foaming at the mouth when Facebook was preparing to announce that it was going public earlier this year, an event that would represent the largest IPO ever for a web company. But even with Mark Zuckerberg at the helm, the company's performance in the stock market revealed a flurry of miscalculations and an overabundance of hype, ultimately leading to an all-time low value of $18.06 per share last Friday.

So should the company's chief executive take the blame for losing $50 billion in market value in just three months since the IPO? Or maybe it's the fault of the Wall Street banks? According to DealBook, fingers should be pointed at one particular individual whose name rarely surfaced throughout the course of the catastrophe: Facebook's chief financial officer, David Ebersman. In the analysis, Ebersman is believed to be the one that incorrectly set the offer price higher than the company originally planned, as well as mislead investors into requesting far too many shares. This opinion, however, is not a unanimous one. Dallas Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban feels that the company managed the IPO "exactly right," and pointed out that Facebook's ability to raise $10 billion in the IPO must be considered a success.