Insight: Morgan Stanley cut Facebook estimates just before IPO

(Reuters) - In the run-up to Facebook's $16 billion IPO, Morgan Stanley, the lead underwriter on the deal, unexpectedly delivered some negative news to major clients: The bank's consumer Internet analyst, Scott Devitt, was reducing his revenue forecasts for the company. The sudden caution very close to Facebook's initial public offering - while an investor road show was under way - was a big shock to some, said two investors who were advised of the revised forecast. ...

Facebook settles lawsuit over "Sponsored Stories"

Yahoo under Levinsohn seen shifting to content, advertising

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - With two of its most distracting conflicts resolved in the past week and a half, Yahoo Inc hopes its new interim chief executive can focus on the biggest challenge of all: turning the company into a digital entertainment destination that wins back the advertising dollars flowing elsewhere. While ousted predecessors Scott Thompson and Carol Bartz were seen as technologists, Ross Levinsohn has managed Internet efforts at such mainstream media companies as CBS and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. ...

Exclusive: Massachusetts subpoenas Morgan Stanley for Facebook

Funds with Facebook hammered as proxy by shorts

SEC, FINRA to review Facebook issues, Nasdaq sued

(Reuters) - Two top U.S. financial regulators said the issues around the initial public offering of Facebook should be reviewed, putting fresh pressure on the company, its embattled lead underwriter and the Nasdaq. After Friday's nearly flat close and Monday's 11 percent plunge, Facebook shares closed 8.9 percent lower at $31 on volume of 101 million shares. At that price the company has shed more than $19 billion in market capitalization from its $38-per-share offering price last week. ...

Wall Street struggles to find Facebook's worth

Verizon unveils video app with Comcast, Netflix

Internet domain name project relaunches after software bug

Nasdaq shareholders mum on Facebook IPO

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Not a single shareholder asked a question at Nasdaq OMX's annual meeting on Tuesday, just days after the exchange operator bungled Facebook's widely anticipated market debut, which helped launch the new stock into a three-day slide. When Nasdaq Chairman H. Furlong Baldwin called for questions at the Tuesday morning meeting in New York, he got eight seconds of silence. Technical glitches marred Facebook's IPO on Nasdaq's exchange on Friday, delaying the social networking giant's market debut by 30 minutes and delaying order confirmations for hours afterward. The U.S. ...

Insight: Morgan Stanley cut Facebook estimates just before IPO

(Reuters) - In the run-up to Facebook's $16 billion IPO, Morgan Stanley, the lead underwriter on the deal, unexpectedly delivered some negative news to major clients: The bank's consumer Internet analyst, Scott Devitt, was reducing his revenue forecasts for the company. The sudden caution very close to Facebook's initial public offering - while an investor road show was under way - was a big shock to some, said two investors who were advised of the revised forecast. ...

Auto-Correct Is Not Ruining Spelling

Today in studies that claim the Internet is ruining our lives, the BBC informs us that auto-correct and spellcheckers have turned us into a bunch of illiterate idiots. But our spelling has been degrading for much longer than iPhone auto-correct has been around. In a survey of more than 2,000 British people, one third of the participants could not spell definitely and two-thirds could not spell separate. While that does sound scary, the survey doesn't indicate whether spelling is rising or falling in Britannia. ...

Google completes Motorola deal, heralding new era

Google has completed its $12.5 billion purchase of device maker Motorola Mobility in a deal that poses new challenges for the Internet's most powerful company as it tries to shape the future of mobile computing.

Google completes Motorola Mobility takeover

Google closed Tuesday its $12.5 billion deal for Motorola Mobility, a key manufacturer of smartphones and other devices that puts the Internet giant in head-to-head competition with Apple.

Website address 'revolution' back in motion

The Internet domain name "revolution" was back in action Tuesday with the agency in charge of website addresses once again taking applications for online neighborhoods breaking the ".com" mold.

The Best and Worst Ways to Handle a Bad Yelp Review

Yelp, like all Internet forums, draws some insidious awful voices, which can present particular problems for businesses trying to solicit customers. The way Yelp works, these businesses can't remove comments, even of the most trollish sort, because that would ruin Yelp's whole set-up. Yelp wants to act as an accurate portrayal of local businesses, after all. The review site does, however, have a filter, which gets rid of the top-shelf garbage. But not all bad reviews constitute spam. And sometimes, a bad burger deserves a rant. ...

FCC Boss: You Should Pay for Internet By How Much You Use [POLL]

The Big Reason for Facebook's Fizzled IPO: Advertising Pains

As Facebook's stock continues its slump, now trading even lower than yesterday's low, the Internet has reached a consensus on why the IPO of the year isn't performing: Advertising. It's how Facebook makes its dollars. And, it has made a lot of dollars this way. But it's not clear Facebook's very good at it, or will get good enough at it to justify a $38 per share price. Hence the investor worry.

ICANN resumes bids for new Internet suffixes

Google completes takeover of Motorola Mobility

Google Tuesday finalized its $12.5 billion deal for Motorola Mobility, a key manufacturer of smartphones and other devices which puts the Internet giant in head-to-head competition with Apple.

Less than 2% ‘Like’ mobile carriers despite millions spent on Facebook campaigns

Less than 2% of mobile carriers’ subscribers “Like” them on Facebook despite the millions of dollars they collectively spend in an effort to promote their services on the world’s most popular social network. Facebook made its initial public offering on Friday and while the company’s stock price dipped below the IPO price of $38 on Monday and continued to slide on Tuesday, Facebook’s offering was the biggest Internet IPO of all time by nearly 10 times. There is no denying that Facebook and the 900 million people who use the social network are of tremendous value to businesses looking to promote their services, but mobile carriers have seemingly not found success thus far as they attempt to bolster Facebook fan counts. According

A look at tech companies with recent IPOs

After Yahoo deal, challenges abound for Alibaba

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's Alibaba Group could command a Facebook-rivalling valuation of $100 billion when it comes to list its shares, possibly by 2015 - but its more immediate challenge is to hang on to top spot in the country's $36 billion e-commerce market. Founded and led by Internet entrepreneur Jack Ma, Alibaba faces increasingly tough competition in its e-commerce stronghold from well-funded rivals 360buy, which is backed by Digital Sky Technologies, Dangdang Inc and Amazon.com Inc. ...

Alibaba repurchases half of Yahoo’s stake for $7.1 billion

As Yahoo’s struggles continue, the company is looking to cut costs and dig up cash wherever it can. Yahoo announced plans last month to lay off 2,000 workers, or nearly 15% of its staff, and before that it filed a “puzzling” patent lawsuit against long-time partner Facebook. Now, Yahoo will sell half of its 40% stake in China-based retail giant Alibaba. Led by Chinese Internet entrepreneur Jack Ma, Alibaba will repurchase part of Yahoo’s holdings in the e-commerce firm for $7.1 billion as it prepares to take the company public. The deal, which was announced in a joint statement on Monday, will see Yahoo sell half its stake in Alibaba for $6.3 billion in cash and as much as $800 million in new preferred

Chrome passes Internet Explorer to become world’s most popular browser

Google’s Chrome Web browser has continued to gain market share since its introduction in 2008. Despite surpassing Internet Explorer in select regions and on weekends, Google’s browser has never been able to dethrone Microsoft in global usage share. According to new numbers from StatCounter, however, Google’s browser has finally averaged higher traffic than Internet Explorer for the first time over a full seven-day stretch. From May 14th through May 20th, the Internet giant’s Web browser garnered a 32.76% share, ahead of Microsoft’s 31.94% and Mozilla Firefox’s 25.47% share. At the start of this week, however, Chrome’s share began to slide, falling to 31.88%, just ahead of Internet Explorer’s 31.47% share. Read