Facebook investors brace for further losses

Investors in Facebook, still reeling from the social network's disastrous stock market debut, are braced for further losses as the ban on early backers selling their shares begins to lift this week.

In a staggered process which begins on Thursday and peaks in November, about 1.9bn shares – four times the current publicly traded number – will begin to be released from "lockup".

Facebook's high-profile owners, from Microsoft and Goldman Sachs to U2 frontman Bono's venture capital fund Elevation Partners, will be free to sell the billions' worth of securities they held back from the initial public offering in May .... http://www.guardian.co.uk