Computer Support Blog

Every year, Time Magazine does a “Man Of The Year” spotlight feature in December.  While the feature article has morphed into “Person Of The Year,” “Woman Of The Year,” and “People Of The Year” over the decades and individual issues, the criteria for the newsworthy person to nab the prestigious cover article has remain unchanged.  The Time “Man” Of The Year is the person who received the most news coverage in a given year, which is why both beloved U.S. Presidents and despised world leaders have frequently made the Man Of The Year list multiple times (Joseph Stalin, for example, was a Time Man Of The Year twice and FDR received the honor three times).  If a similar principle were to be applied to the stock market, it is hard to imagine a Stock Of The Year for 2012 other than Facebook.

Facebook began 2012 with only rumors that it was going public.  Rumors of a Facebook IPO have been circling for years, so the rumors at the outset of 2012 were nothing genuinely new.  So, when Facebook announced its Initial Public Offering and the IPO was beset by numerous, well-reported, – and sometimes objectively funny – problems (there is something ironic about NASDAQ computers failing during an IPO for an Internet giant like Facebook) and took a rapid nosedive, it certainly kept Facebook stock on the front page of both technical and business publications.

The first Quarter in which Facebook stock has traded is about to end – fiscal Second Quarter – and that puts it back in the news.  Already, Facebook executives are working to renew interest in the tumultuous stock, by announcing an earnings call for July 26.  Mark Zuckerberg, who was Time Man Of The Year 2010, announced the earnings call late last week and buzz and speculation erupted throughout both tech sector and business publications.

But just what Zuckerberg will have to say remains a mystery.  There is still enough time in the month for Facebook stock to rebound to its original offering price and even tick up, if Facebook managed to pull off a product or service announcement that invigorated both Facebook fans and investors.  Many are looking at this first earnings call since the company went public as a referendum on Zuckerberg’s leadership, though that may be unfair: several of the issues that beset the fumbled Facebook IPO – like the NASDAQ computer glitch – were entirely out of Zuckerberg’s control and there was, quite simply, no response that even a good leader could make under the circumstances.

It would be much fairer to say that the earnings call represents a referendum on Sheryl Sandberg’s policies.  Sandberg is the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook and she was the executive who introduced the Facebook ad revenue stream.  The earnings call as a publicly-held company is the first chance that investors have to show how they feel about ad revenue streams through the social network as a strategy for making money and long-term growth.

On July 26, Facebook executives will make their historic earnings call and regardless of where the stock or the company’s earnings are on that date, one thing is for sure: the earning’s call will provide the pundits with enough fodder to continue to make Facebook the 2012 Stock Of The Year.

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RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.

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Filed under: business, david milman, facebook, Internet, networks, news, rescuecom