Facebook, Social Media | featured news

Facebook is considering ways to invite children younger than 13 onto its social network, a controversial move that could bolster the company’s bottom line but also spark concern among regulators over the safety of young Internet users.

Although many investors had hoped for a big first-day pop, Facebook's stock opened on May 18 at $42.05 and fluctuated between $45 and $38 throughout the day. It closed barely above its IPO price, at $38.23. Since the IPO, the stock has been down on seven trading days and up on four. Facebook's stock price has gone as low as $26.44 since the IPO.

We've heard rumblings that Facebook was testing a system called Highlight that would allow people to pay to promote a post, and now obnoxiously enough, it's starting to show up.

Facebook's stock has fallen below $30 for the first time since its much-awaited public debut this month.

Voters who click on President Barack Obama's campaign website are likely to start seeing display ads promoting his re-election bid on their Facebook pages and other sites they visit. Voters searching Google for information about Mitt Romney may notice a 15-second ad promoting the Republican presidential hopeful the next time they watch a video online....

Independent analysts have issued price targets ranging from below $25 a share to nearly $50, while bloggers, day traders and others have trotted out valuations that pin Facebook as low as $6 a share. At $38 a pop, nobody liked Facebook.

The new app is similar to Instagram, the photo-sharing app Facebook is in the process of buying for $1 billion. The acquisition, however, has not yet been completed, and Instagram's employees did not work on the Facebook app. Facebook has said it expects the Instagram app to close sometime this year.

The fallout from Facebook Inc's messy initial public offering widened on Wednesday as shareholders sued the social network and its bankers while a trading firm revealed a massive loss on the shares and threatened to seek "remedies."

Two top U.S. financial regulators said on Tuesday the issues around the initial public offering of Facebook should be reviewed, putting fresh pressure on the company, its lead underwriter, Morgan Stanley, and the Nasdaq stock exchange.

Facebook's stock was down more than 10 percent on Monday morning, to around $34 a share.