WASHINGTON - If you bought Facebook shares in the May IPO and held onto them, by Monday morning you would have lost more than half your investment - and not see any encouraging signs of making your money back.
Three months after the largest tech share issue ever on US markets, Facebook fell to a new low below US$19 a share, compared to the US$38 underwriters charged for the 421 million shares they sold.
Although the stock bounced back to close at US$20.01, IPO investors were still holding huge losses with, analysts said, not much hope of a quick reversal.
Some key investors were still cashing out - on Thursday and Friday, billionaire Peter Thiel, who invested in Facebook first in 2004, sold off nearly 80 per cent of his huge holding, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday.