Zuckerberg Swings and Misses, but….

With Monti creating a carbon copy move of yesterday, let’s tune in to some thoughts by Biderman on the Facebook situation.

By now there is no question that the Facebook IPO was totally screwed up. Not only was just about every aspect of the deal FUBARed, but the overall size of the deal, $18 billion, magnified the mess. Yes, Nasdaq and Morgan Stanley both did a horrible job. But ultimately the blame for the disaster is solely on Facebook’s 28-year-old CEO Mark Zuckerberg. All final decisions regarding each aspect of the IPO had to be made by Zuckerberg. That is what CEOs do.

I should know. Over the last 40 years in my career I personally have met or talked with over a hundred public company CEOs. What I have learned from that experience is that every company is only as good as the CEO. So going forward ultimately Facebook will only be as good as is Mark Zuckerberg.

Before the IPO was priced I was planning to buy a small amount after the offering and expected to hold it over time. I thought then and still do that Facebook has the potential of becoming a huge financial success. The key word being potential. Even though I gave Mark Zuckerberg strike one for how he handled the IPO I did buy a few FB shares Monday and Tuesday. If there is a strike two, I will sell my shares. On the other hand if Zuckerberg becomes a hitting machine, I will buy more. Full video below.