Is Facebook worth the price?

Jun 29th 2011, 18:28 by A.D. | LOS ANGELES (The Economist)
ON MONDAY, news surfaced that a small investment fund, GSV Capital, had purchased $6.6m worth of private shares of Facebook, valuing the popular social network at $70 billion. The shares of GSV Capital, which are publicly traded, shot up 42% on the news, adding $14m to the fund’s market value. That suggests the stock market believes Facebook is worth roughly twice its current private market valuation.


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Zynga IPO Implies a $15-$20 Billion Valuation

Published: Tuesday, 28 Jun 2011 | 1:00 PM ET
By: Kate Kelly
CNBC Reporter

As a Harvard Business School student, Mark Pincus scoffed at Wall Street firms whose interview questions he felt were beneath him. Now he’s hiring some of those very companies to help take his game maker, Zynga, public.

Zynga, the San Francisco Internet company responsible for FarmVille, Zynga Poker, and other popular online games, plans to file registration documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission as early as Wednesday to launch an initial public offering of stock, say people familiar with the matter.

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China's debt bomb

By Katie Benner June 28, 2011: 10:41 AM ET
(CNN Money)

As the world watches the Greek credit crisis unfold, a Sino-debt disaster is brewing halfway around the world.

Jim Chanos, the hedge fund manager who is famously shorting China, told Fortune late last year that the country was "embarking on something unprecedented." He was referring to the massive construction boom that has been underway for years, and that was supercharged by a 2008 stimulus package that pumped four trillion yuan ($586 billion) into the economy. In his opinion, the speculative bubble in real estate would end in a big pop, empty buildings, and pain for the country's broader economy.

For those who side with team Chanos, data is seeping out of China that suggests that he may right.
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Fed set to buy $300B more Treasuries

By Chris Isidore @CNNMoney June 28, 2011: 9:54 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- QE2 is just about done. But the Federal Reserve will still be buying massive amounts of long-term Treasuries.

In fact, the Fed's purchases over the next year will likely be at least $300 billion. That's half the size of QE2 -- even if QE3 never takes place. Think of it as QE 2.5. 

While the Fed's efforts to pump about $600 billion of new cash into the economy over the last eight months comes to an end this week, the program, known as quantitative easing or QE2 for short, was not the only way the central bank was an active buyer of Treasuries.
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Citi Plays Catch-Up In China And Russia, Stock Smells Like $56

Jun. 24 2011 - 2:23 pm
posted by TREFIS TEAM
(Forbes - Investing)

Citigroup announced its move into the consumer and retail banking sector in Russia last week reinforcing its focus on emerging markets.

This move comes on the heels of the group’s investment banking joint venture in China that will allow it to offer underwriting and merger & acquisition (M&A) advisory services in the country.

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Apple's iPhone Deal with China Mobile Has Huge Profit Potential

By Douglas McIntyre - Posted 9:00AM 06/24/11

Apple (AAPL) buys many of the components for its electronic devices from Chinese suppliers. Now, it plans to get more aggressive about selling those devices in the world's largest cell phone market, which could substantially boost its earnings. Beijing's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has just announced that there are now 910 million mobile phone subscribers in China. Users of 3G networks rose to almost 74 million. The number of wireless subscribers in the world's most populous nation is more than three times the number in the U.S., and its growing much more rapidly.

TheShanghai Daily reports Apple will begin to sell the iPhone this fall with China Mobile (CHL), by far the largest wireless operator in the People's Republic. Apple already has a partnership with smaller China Unicom (CHU). "A new iPhone with China Mobile's network will debut and the cooperation will be announced in September," China Mobile's Beijing-based marketing official Liu Yang said on his microblog, according to the newspaper.

See full article from DailyFinance:http://srph.it/mA6qyb

Oil Prices Were Already Falling, So Why Tap Reserves Now?

Published: Thursday, 23 Jun 2011 | 11:55 AM ET
By: Jeff Cox
CNBC.com Staff Writer
An aggressive global effort to drive down oil prices even further appears aimed not only at easing gasoline prices but giving a boost to a faltering economy.
Dual announcements on Thursday by the US Department of Energy and International Energy Agency that reserve stockpiles would be released came even as the price of US crude had fallen more than 16 percent in just two weeks, while the more widely used Brent crude was down about 12 percent.

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