Facebook's Plummeting Stock Price Has Forced Mark Zuckerberg To Show Human Emotion Toward Shareholding-Employees

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Mr. Zuckerberg went on to tell employees that the press doesn't know the company's future plans, and if they did, they would have the same faith in Facebook's ability to fulfill its lofty stock-market valuation. He said that investments the company has made over the last six to 12 months will soon bear fruit, the people said. During a question-and-answer session after Mr. Zuckerberg's speech, one employee asked the CEO if employees are now allowed to talk about the stock price, according to the person familiar with the meeting. Yes, said Mr. Zuckerberg. People should feel comfortable talking about it, he said, but the price shouldn't be the focus. Mr. Zuckerberg's new show of sympathy toward shareholding employees was a marked change from his earlier disdain for stock-price talk. On the day of the IPO, Mr. Zuckerberg posted a picture to his Facebook wall of a poster that said, "stay focused, keep shipping." Mr. Zuckerberg addressed his employees a few days later by saying jokingly, "So, you've heard we're firing David?" referring to Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman, as Mr. Ebersman sat a few feet away, according to people familiar with the meeting. He then said, "We're very proud of our deals team and we think they did a great job." [WSJ]

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