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Facebook, Zuckerberg Sued Over IPO
mrquagmire writes with this snippet from CNET: "Facebook shareholders have sued the social network, CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and a number of banks, alleging that crucial information was concealed ahead of Facebook's IPO. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan this morning, charges the defendants with failing to disclose in the critical days leading up to Friday's initial public offering 'a severe and pronounced reduction' in forecasts for Facebook's revenue growth, as users more and more access Facebook through mobile devices, according to Reuters, which cited a law firm for the plaintiffs."
It wasn't because of taxes, it was because of fraud? hmm
I'm god, but it's a bit of a drag really...
First! Sadly, because I got in early, I'm sure I'll lose mod points.
Seriously. The P/E was stupidly high before. Now, even under the revised projections, it's slightly stupidly higher. The stock was due to tank in any case. As we used to say on the playground, "NO DO-OVERS!"
...they came up snake eyes. Or, perhaps a five. Either way, you didn't do your due diligence if you thought that Facebook, today, was worth 100:1 P/E ratio with a solid income track record established. Why is it that people want to sue when their bets went bad. Do you sue the track when that clean looking bay you bet to show comes in fourth because they didn't tell you he was off his feed that morning? Do you sue the casino and Nevada Gaming Commission when you don't ply well at the slots because the adjust the payouts since the last months payout percentages were posted?
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
The suit alleges that only big time investors were apprised that rising use of mobile would affect revenue. This was known to everyone weeks ago, well before the IPO. here's an article from a week prior to the IPO all about the mobile risks
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/9257232/Facebook-issues-revenue-warning-over-mobile-growth.html
A) Saverin hasn't been involved in the running of facebook in years, and certainly had nothing to do with the IPO, so he will not be the target of this lawsuit in any way.
B) He did give up his citizenship for tax reasons, but not the tax reasons everyone thinks. He cannot and will not escape any taxes on money he made from the IPO, he earned those shares when he was a US citizen and will pay full taxes on them. He renounced his citizenship because he hasn't lived in the US in 4 years and was tired of paying taxes to the US for money he was making working in Singapore, which isn't that unreasonable.
She's of Chinese descent, and was born in Massachusetts and grew up around Boston. Nothing Indian about her.
No, Buffet has clearly stated that he will not buy stock in a company, if he does not know how they make money. That is why he stayed away from .com stocks when they were red hot.
In the long run, he strategy has worked out well for him and his investors.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
He renounced his citizenship because he hasn't lived in the US in 4 years and was tired of paying taxes to the US for money he was making working in Singapore, which isn't that unreasonable.
The USA is actually the only first world country that even taxes their people while they are living overseas. For example in my country you don't need to pay any taxes back home if you live in another country for more than 6 months.
Because they revised their numbers before the IPO, but didn't give those revisions to the people buying it. That's fraud in some peoples' minds. It's mis-representing. It's not buyer beware, it's give buyer something different than you said you were giving them. Your standing is being sold something on false pretenses.
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
But isn't Canada just one of the states of the United States?
yeah, the one with all the money
I'm god, but it's a bit of a drag really...
And oil and water, bitches! Don't even think about comin' up here and *liberating* us.
Nope, I'm a Canadian who moved to the US. I had to do dual income taxes the first year because I spent a partial year in both countries. After that, it was only US taxes. If I were to actually make income in Canada then it would be a different story, I believe, but I can make as much as I want in the US and not pay income tax to Canada.
In canada we do not no.
You have to pay taxes on overseas income if you are canadian resident, and you have to specially disclose if you have foreign assets over 100k or some number around there. If you are a non resident in canada you still have to file income taxes on income earned in canada, which can then be dealt with through the ungodly myriad of tax treaties.
However, if you are *living* out of canada for more than 6 months you are no longer a resident, and do not pay taxes. You also are not automatically covered for health insurance.
*liviing* is important. You can spend 6 months out of canada and still be considered living in canada if you don't have a residence out of the country, and meet the criteria for strong ties within canada (and don't spend 6 months outside of canada in the same place I would presume).
As far as I know the only two countries in the world with citizenship tax are eretria and the US. (http://renunciationguide.com/Citizenship-Based-Taxation-International-Comparison.html) Although I grant that that source is a bit sketchy. Wikipedia says the same thing (that the source is sketchy and quotes the same information).
You're going to need to back that one up. I believe Canada does the same thing.
False. Canada taxes its residents. Canada does not tax its citizens, unless they are also residents of Canada.
Read the explanation from the Canada Revenue Agency:
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/nnrsdnts/cmmn/rsdncy-eng.html
If you want a more detailed explanation of how your residence is determined for tax reasons, you should read Interpretation Bulletin IT-221, Determination of an Individual's Residence Status:
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tp/it221r3-consolid/it221r3-consolid-e.html
So I'm afraid I don't think what you say is true.
ME TOO!!!
They seem to always get a piece of the action.
Not quite that simple. The complaint is that revenue projections were selectively disclosed to insiders. That is a violation of SEC regulations.
everyone saw how he made the company by stabbing the people closest to him in the back. what did you think he was going to do with the IPO?
insensitive clod overlords obligatory xkcd car analogy russian reversals whoosh pedant fanbois ftfy in 3...2...1..PROFIT
Screw P/E. Another 4 billion people left to grow baby, booyaah!!! This FB stock is gonna go batman! This is a $100 stock, go Zuckie, go!!
It's worse than that. It's not some innocuous omission of information. It's information that made them a lot of money at the expense of other investors. I don't know how strong regulations still are, but this sounds like a strong case.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
It's amazing how complicated our tax code is yet we can't provide basic human needs (IMHO) to our citizens.
Oh, we can. We just decided that "teh socializim is ebil!!11!" and that money is much better used on endless clusterfucks of wars to "bring freedom" while domestically creating a police state, and corporate blowjobs.
Face it. If you want the government to do something right, you have to tell them to make a left turn.
Define "make any sort of money". I make $70k a year as an engineer. Compared to most people it's good. Compared to the top it's a drop in the bucket.
I would have absolutely no qualms paying 50% taxes if it meant I got some sort of services for it like they do elsewhere.
You Canadians have all gathered together in large cities right along the border. Looks like an invasion force :)
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
First he helps destroy the credibility of the concepts of privacy and secrecy in the population, and now, with the 3rd largest IPO in history, he's helping destroy the credibility of the economic system...
I don't know if he's more like Jesus or Lucifer, but damn I'm starting to love that guy...
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
Here's a reference. Only the US and Eritrea are this dumb.
I've lived abroad for more that 20 years, and I am very tired of filing an ever-increasing number of forms with the US authorities. It's not only the IRS, you also have to file separate forms with a separate agency detailing your foreign bank accounts - which, frankly, is none of their business.
The US does allow a deduction against foreign income, but this is worth less and less as the value of the dollar continues to crash. Depends what currency your country uses, of course, but the US doesn't care or make any allowance for that. In my case, the dollar has lost fully half of its value in the last few years. Turn that around: from the IRS point of view my salary has doubled (even though it actually hasn't). Great.
Add to that the pressure the US is applying to foreign banks, in an attempt to rake in money. I won't go into details here, but the US behavior here is closer to blackmail than to any sort of legal proceeding. The result is that foreign banks now ask you up front "are you subject to US taxes?" If you answer "yes", many simply refuse to do business with you. The US government is making it difficult for normal Americans to get on with their lives.
I have also had enough. I will be renouncing my citizenship before the year is out.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
This puts an objective value on his non-marital (pre-marital?) assets, which she presumably therefore wouldn't share in case of divorce. Combine that with his $1/year salary (presumably to avoid any tax other than 15% capital gains), and her half of community property grows at $0.50/year. If she works, she might end up owing him money if they divorce!
Disclaimer: IANAL and certainly not a divorce lawyer. Please correct me if I am wrong, which I probably am.
you must be thinking of the ancient slashdot when it was "news for nerds" now... not so much ;)
They didn't so much "gather". Everybody else just froze to death.
What about the UK? I have heard horror stories about their taxes.
I'm a Brit living in the US, and the only tax I pay is to the US government - federal, state and city! Also, the tax system in the UK is considerably easier to operate within as an employee, as your employer handles your deductions and the Inland Revenue calculate how much you owe/are owed. Apart from a few fringe cases, I have never known anyone who was owed money to / was owed money by the Inland Revenue at the end of the year, so I guess the employers know exactly how much to deduct.
Here in the US the situation is far more complicated even for someone in such a trivial tax situation as myself - no investment earnings, mortgage, other revenue sources, etc. I have to wade through hundreds of pages of explanatory documents to fill in boxes which the IRS then go and check independently anyway. What's worse is that most tax software doesn't work for Non-resident Aliens, so the people who most need help with the tax system are left to figure it out by themselves or pay an extortionate fee to an accountant.
Think about your statement for a minute. You do realize that Ross Perot ran, and nearly won, where his platforms biggest goals was to reduce the US tax system to a single postage card sized form for all citizens. Point is: We have know that US taxes have been a wreck for 20+ years.
Now, who do you think lobbied hardest against tax reform then? Who do you think lobbies hardest not to reform taxes now?
1. The people that benefit from the 60,000 pages of tax "law" and loop holes.
2. Tax agencies, and Lawyers that specialize in Tax law.
Most of the US would benefit if it was fixed and fair.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Anger and insults constitute a defective response to a statement of facts on how the US is hurting itself.
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I think I'd rather die all in one go - best to get it over and done with.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."