Sec, Internet | featured news

Companies can use social media such as Facebook and Twitter to unveil key information about their operations as long as they’ve told investors where to look for it, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced Tuesday.

RealNetworks disclosed in an SEC filing this afternoon that the company today cut 80 positions, or about 7% of its worldwide employee base, as part of a previously announced plan to reduce operating expenses.

Facebook went public just about a month ago, and on Friday the Securities & Exchange Commission released its correspondence with the social network in the months between its initial filing and the May 18 IPO.

Facebook has filed papers for what's expected to be the largest initial public offering ever to come out of Silicon Valley and one of the largest in U.S. history. Ending months of breathless speculation, the 8-year-old social networking company has submitted registration documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that set preliminary goal of $5 billion. Facebook had discussed raising as much as $10 billion. Final pricing will not be set for months, and the size of the IPO probably will increase with investor demand. The filing sets the stage for an IPO in May.

IAC/Interactive, Barry Diller's conglomerate of Internet businesses, disclosed in an SEC filing this afternoon that the company has named Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former president Bill Clinton and current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to the company's board of directors.

I wrote here at Forbes in May about the dangerous trend of unaudited numbers being used by companies, media, and investors to evaluate the potential of these IPOs... As long as they get their return before the gig is up, who cares what the real story is?

Groupon is going to wait at least a couple of weeks before launching the final phase of its initial public offering because regulators still have questions for the daily deals website and the stock market is too volatile, a person familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.

With so many investors becoming fans of the company, Facebook will be legally required to begin sharing more information about its finances and strategy by April 2012, according to documents distributed to prospective shareholders....

Internet retailer Newegg Inc. plans an initial public offering of stock worth up to $175 million, according to a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.