Goldman to Offer Facebook Shares Only to Non-U.S. Clients

[Roland99]

Source: Wall St. Journal

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. decided to exclude U.S. clients from the private offering of as much as $1.5 billion in shares of social-networking company Facebook Inc., citing "intense media attention."

In a statement provided to The Wall Street Journal, Goldman said the move came after officials at the New York securities firm "concluded the level of media attention might not be consistent with the proper completion of a U.S. private placement under U.S. law."

Goldman began notifying clients of its decision on Sunday night in Asia, and clients in Europe and the U.S. were being told on Monday, according to people familiar with the situation.

In its statement, Goldman said the decision to limit the offering to "offshore" investors wasn't "required or requested by any other party," including the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703396604576087941210274036.html?mod=mktw

---

Anyone smell something? I sure do.

[dkf]

1. Any Facebook user beginning to feel creepy how much info we've given these people?

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Oh, I say at one point we'll be suing that mother fucker in a class action suit.

Not selling to U.S. citizens? Wow. What an incredible discriminatory move.

I can't wait for someone to come up with a better, safer option.

[glinda]

17. Is Murdoch a non US citizen?

[The Backlash Cometh]

22. They keep calling him Australian born.

Not sure what point they're trying to make.

[justabob]

45. naturalized

He had to become a citizen to own tv stations/networks, I think.

[glinda]

58. But he owns media in other Countries. Just wondering.

Because if they limit who can buy into it and if he has duel citizenship or is not a US citizen then he will have been given a lead in on the deal while cutting out some competition.

[no limit]

3. Not really. Why?

[dkf]

18. Facebook is so valuable because they have info on you.

It's your data that is worth billions.

[no limit]

19. What data specifically are you concerned about?

You know who else has alot of information on your? Basically any site you use that wants to collect such information.

[JDPriestly]

21. The dates and places of birth of millions of baby Americans?

The dates and places of your wedding, your sister's operation, your honeymoon?

That's all mineable data. I don't know what value some of it may have on a black market for identity theft one of these days. Hard to say.

[no limit]

26. So? What are these companies going to do with your babies birth day?

It takes quite a bit more than just knowing your birthday to steal your identity. And why exactly would goldman sachs want to steal your identity?

[Exultant Democracy]

27. A date of birth is exactly what someone needs to steal an identiy when paired with a birth place.

Both of which are sold by facebook to interested parties.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/07/social-insecurity-numbers-open-to-hacking.ars

[no limit]

28. Banks no longer let you get information based just on your birthday/birth place

it's a bit more complicated these days.

On edit: When I responded I didn't read your link, sorry about that. The link says that they can only predict the first 5 digits less than 50% of the time. Not very useful especially when you will need other hard to obtain information to verify who you are.

[Exultant Democracy]

31. I guess you didn't bother to follow the link, suffice to say you are very wrong

unfortunately for us our ss# aren't assigned randomly. A birth-date and place is all that an identity thief needs to figure out a ss#.

[no limit]

32. I didn't, I edited my post above before you responded. You can see the edit

your own link says this only works 44% of the time and it can only be used on the first 5 digits. It's an interesting experiment, but hardly a good way to steal identities especially since you need a lot more these days than just a SSN to get private information.

[Exultant Democracy]

33. They also said that a moderatly sized botnet could successfully obtain 47 identities in a minute

"many credit card verification services, recognizing the challenges of data entry from illegible forms, may allow up to two digits of the SSN to be wrong, provided the date and place of birth are accurate. "

Even a system with a 0.1 failure rate 1 out of a 1000 it is pretty crappy to be that 1. The claim that birth date and place aren't enough to steal an identity is patently false.

[no limit]

34. The problem with a .1% success rate is that you don't know when you have a failure

and when you don't. In a lab, like they used in that test enviroment you do. In the real world you don't.

I also have a hard time believing that a bank or any other verification service would allow you to get 2 of the last 4 digits of your SSN wrong. There is no way in hell that is true. maybe 2 digits out of the first 5, but certainly not the last 4.

So again, as cool of an experiment as that is it simply is not practical for real world identity theft. You have a much better chance at stealing the identity using methods I originally thought you were talking about before reading your link. Such as using the forgot password feature of certain sites that use your date of birth and birth place to reset your password. Which is how Palin's yahoo email got "hacked".

[Thor_MN]

51. Guess you must be pretty young

Once upon a time, you typically didn't get a SSN until you started working, so knowing the birthdate of anyone older than say 25 is absolutely useless in determining a SSN.

[JDPriestly]

53. Wow! That was easy! It's downright scary.

But I think it isn't the place you were born but where you lived when you got your number.

[pipoman]

44. With your name, DOB, and $100

I can have your SS and LKA in 15 minutes.

[no limit]

59. No, you can't.

[pipoman]

63. Ok, if it makes you feel better..

[pipoman]

64. Now that I have taken time to re-read this thread

I can see how much you really don't know. What a joke.

20 years as a collection agent says you are full of shit.

[pam4water]

6. Yes very.

[Quantess]

8. Yeah, all those pictures of my dog,

and they know where I went to school. And all my inane replies to people telling me what they ate for dinner. They could even find out what level I've reached in FarmVille!

[molly77]

23. Truly hilarious.

It could just be marketing . My son is unmarried. His living situation is in the desperate category. Was encouraging him to employ a maid service on the phone. Next day, I had several advertisements from maid services emailed to me.

[dkf]

37. Yes it is the marketing aspect which is so valuable.

Political parties also love this info as they can pinpoint their voters and make sure they vote.

[joeglow3]

14. No. I gave them little and they took nothing

Why would ANYONE post ANY personal information beyond your name and, maybe, your city/high school?

[Very_Boring_Name]

43. Nope, not at all

[Skittles]

65. no, because I never fell for the Facebook Fad

[cleanhippie]

67. No, because I didn't put my personal info on my profile.

People who do are idiots for ever thinking that private info is safe on the intertubes.

[pam4water]

4. WTFBBQ K&R N/T

[LynneSin]

5. If they won't offer shares to Americans then I'm shutting down my account

I mean no big loss - I hardly use the thing but I was able to find a few old friends I wanted to find. That was nice.

But I don't see why they won't offer Facebook shares to American Investors. Just absolutely disgusting.

[JDPriestly]

7. American law protects investors and requires a certain amount of

disclosure in some circumstances. Goldman could be trying to pull a fast one. This does not look good. Goldman does not want people to know who owns the information they put on Facebook.

[notesdev]

9. Could be?

Come on, this is Goldman we are talking about. If they are not selling this to US clients, then it's so monstrous a ripoff that even their pet regulators couldn't shield them from it.

[dkofos]

11. I think you are right. I'm not sure how anyone could think FB is worth $1.5 billion.

[Lucky Luciano]

16. Goldman's investment actually places the "value" at $50B. nt

[dkofos]

20. Is that in enron/worldcom dollars??

[Lucky Luciano]

39. More like dot com bubble dollars. nt

[wordpix]

56. see my post #55 about the IPO and insider deals

[SOS]

66. Re: "value"

Our economy is devolving to medical bills, phony bank profits, Enron-style corporate earnings and web sites.
A nation needs to create real wealth, not just stock market swindles and web sites where we talk to people we went to high school with.
When the sh*t hits the fan this whole thing is going to collapse like the house of cards it is.

[dixiegrrrrl]

30. Bingo!!!!!!

Goldman does not want people to know the fine print in their offering, either.

[BadgerKid]

49. A Way To Get Around Regulations

The US has disclosure rules that protect investors in companies that have more than 500 investors. Goldman Sachs is creating a scheme where they are the singular investor, but then other investors buy into their shares of Facebook. This prevents Facebook from having to disclose certain information that is considered critical in deciding to invest in a company or not, and allows them to sell shares without informing the public about what they're buying.

This has been on the SEC's radar as potentially totally illegal, as it pretty blatantly is designed to get around this particular rule. The rule is there to protect small investors, and help create a more fair, less manipulated playing field.

Quite frankly, whatever Facebook will become in the future, the current valuations are crazy. This is protecting US investors from taking a bath, as the rule was intended to do in the first place.

http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1954458&cid=34911166

[1monster]

12. I opened my FaceBook account for business reasons, but then my family found it.

How does one say "no" to a friend request from your mother or sister?

Now my Facebook page is by relatives and their friends and their relatives. I want to close down my Facebook too. How does one go about it?

[AngryAmish]

13. Just don't go there again.

Block emails from facebook.

[LynneSin]

29. Leave a last post there telling your friends a relatives they can reach you by phone

or stop by a visit.

Facebook is teaching us how to have relationships without any human interaction

[no limit]

35. This should help you delete a facebook account

hope if helps:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=16929680703

[1monster]

61. Thank you! Mucho mas.

[shanti]

69. and if you truly want it CLOSED

do not access it AT ALL for two weeks, not even once. if you do, it will re-open your account again. not logging on for two weeks closes it permanently.

[molly77]

24. Me too. Tired of the pictures of dogs and meals.

[defendandprotect]

47. Why is everyone working to make Goldman wealthier .... ????

[wordpix]

55. I read that insiders are getting deals for big profits & after, the IPO is available to the peons

at which point no more profits are to be had. So Goldman is getting heat for that, is my bet. Can't remember where/when I read the article, but it's recent.

On to the rest of the world, since the US is taking notice of this corpos and its questionable insider deals.

[Lucky Luciano]

57. The heat is from the 500 shareholders rule alluded to above or in a search.

Goldman did this deal to make sure they got first dubs to be lead underwriter in the IPO in which they will likely make a fuckin fortune.

[JJW]

10. Free Market Principles?

Sounds like Goldman Sachs doesn't believe in Free Markets!

[otohara]

15. More Outsourcing

of America...

[highplainsdem]

25. "Chinese demand is especially strong, said one person familiar with the offering." n/t

[freshwest]

36. Goldman Sachs may simply be thumbing their noses at us.

But likely are seeking to protect themselves within their own elite circles. They are in bed with almost everything being done wrong on this planet.

I hope I'm not going off topic here, but I think there's a relationship between sovereign wealth such as Goldman represents and global organizations that seem to operate above and outside of any one nation's brand of democratic accountability.

Rumors have always held that Facebook is a creation of the CIA. Check that the conspiracy theory origin of that rumor is noted here, but also the plain facts in this NZ source. If you follow the money trail, you never go wrong. That's where the truth lies in almost every endeavor:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10456534

The internet itself was a combined creation of the Department of Defense and other entities, and Gore said he had to work to get approval for its creation...

Or if you choose to be less generous, Al Gore simply acted as an agent manufacturing consent for the largest surveillance system on the planet.

Some have said that the internet was set up according the rules of the Boy Scouts and had no idea what was going to happen, hackers, invasion of privacy, etc.

No mention is made of the fact that the owners of the websites aren't invading our privacy, but we invited them to do that. It all comes down to how the use of the information they have the right to collect, affects our lives, positively or negatively.

We fell in love with the internet and funded all aspects of it,with our hard-earned cash in every single way, from taxes to ISP to computers to software. We can't live without web cams on the computer or the latest brain dropping from friends, or so they say.

I don't think the planetary version of the old rural telephone party line is private. It's recorded and kept until it becomes of no use.

Because we pay money for the gadgets, our broadband, it's all recorded, all the way to that bank account and every bit of information we had to supply to have a bank account, credit card, job, vehicle, etc. That implies consent on our part.

We understand business and it's reasonable when you look at it that way. We've accepted data mining of our information and so many other forms of surveillance already, so long as a good excuse is given and we've had some great ones put out since 911.

We asked for it, we always love new and shiny things. It's turned out to be so much more than anyone ever dreamed it would be, affecting elections, culture, etc. And if recent news is true about Wikileaks, even bringing down governments, there's been a fall off the tiger's back for the creators. It's been a wild ride, hasn't it?

From the Apple website:

Albert Gore Jr.
Former Vice President of the United States

Former Vice President Al Gore has served as a Senior Advisor to Google, Inc. and Vice Chairman of Metropolitan West Financial LLC since 2001...

As a member of the U.S. Congress 25 years ago, he popularized the term “Information Superhighway,” and was instrumental in fighting for federal funds to assist in building what later became the Internet. In the Senate, Gore was a leading expert on nuclear arms control and national defense. He was a member of the Armed Services Committee and Chairman of the Space, Science and Technology Subcommittee. He has remained an active leader in technology and telecommunications — launching a public/private effort to wire every classroom and library in America to the Internet.

http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/gore.html

All of those actions mean something in national and global terms.

I'm still not worried. I have friends who think Facebook is great, and all the other sites are shutting down the services they once offered, so my friends went there for chatting. It's been said for a few years now that all of us are being shunted towards Facebook in order to keep connected.

Unless THEY really are out to GET us, it's no use getting scared. We don't own this stuff, we're only consumers. We can say No once in a while.

[bongbong]

40. Common error

Gore had nothing to do with the creation of the internet. Hundreds of thousands of people were using the Internet before Gore had any involvement with it.

[freshwest]

42. He was on TV years ago saying he was part of it.

He never claimed to be the sole creator. He said he was on the committee that worked out the legalities of the connections as part of his position on the defense committee.

Governments and businesses created what we now have, which was based on the connections between telecommunications and other institutions. I worked on this in the 1970s. I'm done with this topic.


:dem:

[defendandprotect]

48. Exactly ... and Gore's explained that many times ... and ...

as a poster above noted:


As a member of the U.S. Congress 25 years ago, he popularized the term “Information Superhighway,” and was instrumental in fighting for federal funds to assist in building what later became the Internet. In the Senate, Gore was a leading expert on nuclear arms control and national defense. He was a member of the Armed Services Committee and Chairman of the Space, Science and Technology Subcommittee. He has remained an active leader in technology and telecommunications — launching a public/private effort to wire every classroom and library in America to the Internet.

http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/gore.html

[bongbong]

62. Apple is wrong

Seeing as how people I knew were using the Internet in 1982, and I was using it in 1985, Apple should probably correct the mistake on their website.

[TatonkaJames]

38. One more advantage for the Wealthy

When are we going to stop being Stoopid and do something about this trend towards a two class system ?

[Althaia]

41. You think internet data mining is not a problem?

Then you are not familiar with sites like spokeo.
http://www.spokeo.com/

[defendandprotect]

46. Goldman Sachs owns "Facebook, Inc." .... ????? Yikes!

[freshwest]

50. Yikes is right! Just think...

Some of the biggest crooks on the planet can find out where you live, what you buy, your bank account number, income, etc. After all, the bank wanted it and you have to pay for ISP with electronic funds, in one way or other. If I wasn't more than the sum of my bank account, I would be in big trouble. (Probably am...)

[defendandprotect]

60. It also enriches our enemies ...

which enforming them of personal contacts, family situations --

frightening! What the hell is wrong with people?

Americans are waaaay too trusting, especially about elites and politicians!!

We all need to turn our BS meters waaaay up!!!

:)

[Odin2005]

52. Goldman Sucks is pure evil.

[unkachuck]

54. people are desperate...

....yet if you lie down with capitalists, you'll waked up fleeced....

....banks won't pay meaningful interest and push people onto wall street ponzi schemes....I'll take the inflation and devaluation rather than a massive wall street ponzi fuck....

[sarcasmo]

68. I really don't see how this is legal.

[Initech]

70. Like I keep saying - we're witnessing economic terrorism, folks.

[Roland99]

71. Is Goldman Sachs a Vampire Squid on Facebook’s Face? (Goldman charging fees galore)

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-goldman-sachs-vampire-squid-facebook%E2%80%99s-face

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) is acting more insecure than ever with an incredibly pompous payment structure for private placement shares of social networking site Facebook. According to Bloomberg Markets Magazine (via Business Insider), the investment banking deal doesn’t have only placement agent fees, it also includes a Vampire Squid Clause:

The firm would levy a 4% placement fee on clients, plus a .5% “expense reserve” fee. It would also require investors to surrender 5% of any profits, known as “carried interest,” according to a Goldman Sachs document.

...

This isn’t Goldman’s hedge funds or trading desks where Goldman is actually creating value in the underlying businesses or generating trading profits. Investment banking is an agency service. Goldman is nothing more than a broker for its clients and Facebook.

If investors and companies are willing to give a middle-man a percentage of upside returns (of course Goldman carries no risk — the clients hold all that), we are agreeing that a percentage of the value created by the hard working employees of the company and the risk-taking investors should be skimmed away from the capital’s best use. For capitalism to thrive, risk-takers must be fully rewarded for taking risks, and businesses must be fully rewarded for adding value to society. An agent, of course, is entitled to a flat fee.