Facebook Home Is Out……. Gets Many 1 Star Ratings

So Facebook fans who have Android phones, Facebook Home is out and available. That’s where the good news ends. If you look at Google Play the average rating is 2.3 stars and the majority of ratings are 1 star ratings.

Can you say #epicfail? Oh, sorry. Wrong social networking site.

Here’s what users had to say:

Not an intuitive app. Made my phone so frustratingly complicated to use that I uninstalled after just four or five hours. Unless major changes are made including an easy way to get to my home screen I will not reinstall.

So I downloaded the app, and within 10 minutes of downloading, I uninstalled. Was not impressed by this app at all. Might be nice for some people, but not me.

I tried it ,and to be honest, it just was too much. I would like it better if it was just the lock screen, but it gets annoying. Plus, it hid most of my other apps (namely google ones lol).

It won’t let you launch the app without clearing your preference for a home screen, the app doesn’t have customizable shortcuts for the main screen, adding apps to the app screen is lame. Just getting to the phone app to make a call takes too many clicks. It’s a phone first people. Needs a lot of work. The app needs to help a phone be more functional and integrated, not take away from the flexibility that android provides.

Now there are good reviews. But most of them are like this. Not good if you are Facebook. The question is, how will Facebook respond.

Was NBC Hacked Yesterday?

That’s a question that FaceBook users are asking. All Things Digital is reporting that Facebook was blocking users from posting links from NBC.com. Though they didn’t say why and that it was related to a hack, Facebook did say this:

“We will take action on Facebook when we observe malicious behavior on domains and sub-domains that are being shared; however, we don’t comment on specific sites,” a Facebook spokesperson told AllThingsD.

So, was NBC hacked? Who knows. NBC didn’t say so. I doubt they will. I guess they don’t want to be known as the latest American company to be hacked. Assuming they were hacked of course.

Facebook Hacked Via Java Flaw…. Time To Change Your Password

The title sounds alarmist, but these days you never know the extent of any hack. Thus it’s better to be safe than sorry. In any case, The news leaked out yesterday that Facebook was hacked:

“Last month, Facebook Security discovered that our systems had been targeted in a sophisticated attack,” the blog post reads. “We have found no evidence that Facebook user data was compromised. As part of our ongoing investigation, we are working continuously and closely with our own internal engineering teams, with security teams at other companies, and with law enforcement authorities to learn everything we can about the attack, and how to prevent similar incidents in the future.”

Lovely, what makes this scary is the fact that the site was hacked via a Java vulnerability:

The lesson, for those who haven’t heard it several dozen times already: Disable Java in your browser. (Security blogger Brian Krebs offers a useful guide to disabling Java in any browser here.) Oracle has made clear over the last year that it can’t or won’t suss out and patch the endless collection of hackable flaws in its most widespread consumer program. In multiple cases the company has sat on information about a vulnerability in the software for months, allowing attackers to take advantage of the bug to compromise users via invisible browser-based attacks.

For those of you keeping score at home, Twitter was hacked in a similar way not too long ago. You can bet that Oracle is going to get a phone call about this.

Another thing that troubles me is the fact that this happened a month ago, but they’re only letting the world know now. That’s a #fail. I’m a big believer that companies should disclose this sort of thing when they happen for the security of their users. I also believe that if they don’t want to do that on their own, there should be laws that require it with stiff penalties if they don’t. As it stands now, a lot of Facebook users are wondering if any of their personal info has fallen into the hands of evil doers.

Earnings, Earnings, And More Earnings

Tis the season for earnings and there’s a lot to choose from. Let’s start with today’s big news. Facebook had it’s first report since their rather craptastic IPO. The results were less than stunning:

Facebook posted a net loss of $157-million, or 8 cents a share in the second quarter, due to hefty stock compensation charges related to its IPO, compared to net income of $240-million, or 11 cents, in the year-ago quarter.

Excluding the charges, Facebook said it earned 12 cents a share.

In its first report to Wall Street since the IPO, the world’s No.1 social networking company said that revenue in the three months ended June 30 was $1.18-billion, compared to $895-million in the year-ago quarter.

This was enough to send the stock sharply downwards in after hours trading. Not good if you’ve invested in the social networking giant.

Next was Apple earlier this week. The good news is that they beat their guidance and made an obscene amount of money:

The Company posted quarterly revenue of $35.0 billion and quarterly net profit of $8.8 billion, or $9.32 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $28.6 billion and net profit of $7.3 billion, or $7.79 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 42.8 percent compared to 41.7 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 62 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

Here’s the bad news. The street expected more:

But analysts had expected profits of $9.8 billion, or $10.38 a share, on $37.35 billion in revenues.

After the announcement, Apple’s shares were trading down more than $29 at under $572.

It’s a weird world when you make money and still get punished for it.

Finally, there’s Symantec. First they announced their earnings:

GAAP operating margin for the first quarter of fiscal year 2013 was 16.1 percent compared with 18.3 percent for the same quarter last year. GAAP net income for the fiscal first quarter was $172 million compared with net income of $191 million for the year-ago period. GAAP diluted earnings per share were $0.24 compared with $0.25 for the year ago quarter. Variation in year-over-year GAAP results were as expected due to increases in restructuring costs and IT infrastructure investments.

GAAP deferred revenue as of June 29, 2012, was $3.745 billion compared with $3.689 billion as of July 1, 2011, up 2 percent year-over-year and up 5 percent after adjusting for currency. Cash flow from operating activities for the first quarter of fiscal year 2013 was $340 million compared with $503 million for the year ago period.

Those are solid numbers. But the news doesn’t end there:

Symantec today announced that Enrique Salem, president and chief executive officer (CEO), has stepped down effective immediately and Symantec’s board of directors has appointed Steve Bennett president and chief executive officer, in addition to his continued role as chairman of the board.

Unlike the first two tech companies, this news didn’t affect the stock. That’s great for them.

Expect more releases to come next week.

Instead Of Unfriending Facebook, Investors Sue

Well, this IPO mess is just getting worse for Facebook. It’s been announced today that the social networking site among others is being sued:

Facebook Inc. chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg, and several banks led by Morgan Stanley were sued by shareholders, who claimed the defendants hid the social networking leader’s weakened growth forecasts ahead of its $16-billion initial public offering.

The defendants were accused of concealing from investors during the IPO marketing process “a severe and pronounced reduction” in Facebook revenue growth forecasts, resulting from increased use of its app or website through mobile devices.

Sucks to be Zuckerbeg et al. But there’s actually worse news:

On Wednesday a Democratic aide to the Senate Banking Committee told The Associated Press the panel wants to learn more about the initial public offering. The committee seeks briefings with representatives of Facebook, regulatory agencies and others. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because the committee’s planned inquiry hasn’t been publicly announced.

If that’s true, this could quickly spiral downward.

Oh yeah, Facebook stock was shockingly up today closing at $32 which is up $1 from yesterday’s close.

Facebook Continues To Nosedive While Investigatons Begin

Clearly people continued to hit the sell button when it comes to Facebook stock. Today it closed down almost 9% and it continues to slide in after hours trading. If it wasn’t clear before it’s becoming clear now. The stock is overvalued and I believe that it may have a ways to fall before it settles. To add to the turmoil, there are calls for an investigation into how this stock was IPO’ed:

The separate calls for review, by Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro and FINRA Chairman Rick Ketchum, added pressure on the company, its underwriters and the Nasdaq, all of which have taken blame for the stock’s harried opening and subsequent sharp decline.

Lovely. It’s clearly going to get worse before it gets better. We’ll see if the drop continues tomorrow.

Facebook Stock Nosedives At Market Open… Not Many Likes Here

It didn’t take long for reality to set in for Facebook. As I type this at 11:10 AM, Facebook stock is down $4.55 cents or 11.9% of their value at open.  Clearly the hype has worn off. But personally, I think it might be a few days or even a few weeks before investors get a true sense of what Facebook’s true value is.

This should be interesting to watch.

Facebook Goes Public And Zuckerberg Gets Hitched…. Boy Is He Busy

On Friday, Facebook went public. It’s debut on the stock markets was kind of craptastic. Public trading didn’t get underway until about 11:30 a.m. ET, half an hour after it was supposed to. When trading did start, shares were only up between 5 and 10 per cent and by noon were essentially back down to the IPO price of $38. The day for Facebook ended at $38.23.

#fail…. Oh wait. Wrong social networking site.

Even with that stumble, Facebook is still worth something north of $100 billion. Now the real challenge will be to keep the stock value there.

Then the next day, founder Mark Zuckerberg changed his relationship status to married. He got hitched to long time girlfriend Priscilla Chan in a surprise ceremony yesterday. At least Zuckerberg traded in his trademark hoodie for a suit for this event.

The next few weeks should be interesting to see.

GM Pulls Ads From Facebook Ahead Of Friday’s IPO….. Not Good

GM is a massive car company and they likely spend a pile of cash to get you to buy a car. So when they decided to stop spending money on ads on Facebook, that got my attention:

GM’s decision raises questions about the ability of Facebook to sustain the 88% revenue growth achieved in 2011. Facebook said last month its first-quarter ad revenue was down 7.5% from the previous three months. Facebook blamed “seasonal trends” for the decline, as well as a greater number of users from outside the U.S., where ad rates are lower.

GM spent only about $10 million last year to advertise on Facebook, according to people familiar with the matter. That is a fraction of GM’s total 2011 U.S. ad spending of $1.8 billion, according to Kantar Media. It is also a tiny share of Facebook’s total 2011 revenue of $3.7 billion, most of which was advertising sales.

For me, it shows just how overhyped Facebook is. If GM doesn’t see the value of spending $10 million on Facebook, I’m going to guess that other companies will start to see that too. Sucks to be Mark Zuckerberg right about now with an IPO on Friday. How do you explain that to Wall Street? Oh well. At least it isn’t a passing fad.

Oh wait. A recent poll says it is. Hmmmm…..

 

Would You Hand Over Your Facebook ID To Get A Job?

A recent report is highlighting a nasty trend that employers are adopting. They’re apparently asking applicants for their Facebook login IDs and passwords so that they can look and see what the applicant has to hide. Personally, I’m bothered by this as it’s nobody’s business what’s on anyone’s Facebook page. I’d be willing to bet that 99% of the time it has nothing to do with evaluating whether someone is suited for a job or not. On the other hand, perhaps employers feel that they can get away with this because the economy and the job market is so poor. But perhaps I’m looking at this wrong. Thus here’s a poll for you to express your opinion. Let’s see how others feel out there.