As Mark Zuckerberg continues to make up for all the fun he missed out on in college by taking a roadtrip with a few of his best executive Facebook buds, the touring dog and pony show has apparently led to an increase in interest from investors around the world. With the new wave of interest comes rumors of a higher starting price — 38 bucks per share, which is a decent bump up from the $28-$35 range we saw last week. While Facebook must be confident in their asking price, other active investors are calling out the price bump as a symptom of yet another overhyped tech stock. And outside of the financial types interest in Facebook's actual product is about as mediocre as it always was.
According to one investment firm director from Greycroft Partners, Facebook's apparent value comes from its ubiquitousness. Literally everyone and their grandmother uses Facebook, which can make for some enthusiastic early trading that won't be sustainable in the long run. Just because Facebook is everywhere doesn't necessarily make it a solid investment, the argument goes.
For further evidence that general public interest is cooling on the social network, CNBC has been polling Facebook users on everything from making purchases through Facebook, to their general opinion of major tech companies, to how they feel about Mark Zuckerberg personally. For the record, CNBC found most people would think twice about handing over their credit card information on Facebook, they feel lukewarm on Facebook despite widespread love for Google, Apple and Microsoft, and 9% of folks give Zuck a "Never Heard Of Him" rating.
Anyhow, the only regular joes who seem to be clamoring for Facebook shares are old people in Florida and one misguided dad who wants to invest his daughter's college fund in the social networking company. Hopefully, he didn't try to justify that one with the old "Mark Zuckerberg never finished college either" argument.
Anyhow, Facebook and the shareholding banks are still expected to settle on a final share price later this week, with the stock likely hitting the NASDAQ under the "FB" symbol this Friday.
