Facebook is facing dozens of lawsuits from angry shareholders. The social network is suggesting that trading problems at the Nasdaq Stock Market contributed to a severe drop in the company's stock price after its initial public offering.
Facebook and the banks overseeing the IPO also insist that nothing about its IPO process was illegal or even out of the ordinary. The anticipated IPO was flawed by glitches that delayed trading when Facebook went public on May 18. Facebook stated that those glitches at Nasdaq hurt its stocks for days.
In its filing late Thursday, Facebook said the lawsuits "ignore that what Facebook and (the banks) allegedly did both followed customary practices and did not violate any rules."
"As is customary," Facebook said, the May 9 filing "did not include any forward-looking projections." In other words, Facebook did not give a revenue or profit forecast in its amended filing, nor did it do so in any other IPO document. Facebook added that federal regulators do not require companies to give earnings or revenue projections in their IPO documents.
Facebook mentioned that it wants to bring the lawsuits to New York in part because that is the home to most of the banks involved in the IPO.
Facebook's stock gained value for the week for the first time. The stock therefore climbed $1.72, or 6.1 percent, to close at $30.01 on Friday. That is up nearly 11 percent for the week, though it's still down 21 percent from its IPO price of $38.
