扎克伯格大举抛售Facebook股票的真相

    Facebook公司表示，公司创始人兼CEO马克•扎克伯格将出售4,414万股价值23亿美元的Facebook股票，用以支付税款。这项纳税义务显然是因为他行使期权，购买了6,000万B类股所致。需要说明的是，B类股蕴含的投票权10倍于出售给普通投资者的A类股。

    扎克伯格的投票权由此将从58.8%减少至56.1%，因此他仍然是门洛帕克的“山大王”。

    扎克伯格出售Facebook股票的举动现在成了每个人都在热议的话题，但这真的只是边角料。在我看来，真正重要的故事是，扎克伯格销售的股票是Facebook公司最新公开发行的大约7,000万A类股的一部分。在这个发行总数中，扎克伯格将贡献4,414万股（所得款项将用来缴税或其他用途），Facebook公司将发售2,700万股，这将摊薄现有股东的权益。

    这家公司表示，售股所得（大约15亿美元）计划用于“充实营运资本和其他一般企业用途”。

    什么？“一般企业用途？”好吧，Facebook公司是在说，它将摊薄股东权益，以募集资金，这样就可以继续运营下去？这家公司不是刚刚在1年前通过上市发行获得了一大笔资金吗？

    从许多层面来看，这都是一个令人不安的迹象。我们都知道，Facebook的用户数量正在下降，在青少年群体中，它已经不像昔日那样“酷”。尽管如此，这家公司依然在赚取真金白银。其实，它在今年第三季度创下20亿美元营收，斩获6.25亿美元利润。这份成绩单一点都不糟糕；事实上，它完全超出分析师的预期，他们此前给出了一个更加温和的营收预期值。结果就是，Facebook的股价出现飙升。总体而言，这家公司今年的股价已翻了一番，因为随着这家社交网络进入移动广告领域，市场预期其利润将呈现更强劲的增长态势。

    Facebook似乎正在实践它的盈利承诺，这项售股计划由此显得更加离奇。Facebook究竟迫切需要什么东西，以至于它愿意摊薄现有股东的权益？我不敢妄称自己知道门洛帕克那边正在发生什么事情，但身处纽约的我可以告诉你，对于投资者而言，这种行为是一个危险信号。

    简单地说，只有在Facebook认为其股价被高估的情况下，这种行为才讲得通。Facebook拒绝接受本文作者的采访要求。

    为什么呢？首先，目前的债务成本很便宜——便宜得有些离谱。在这种环境下，特别是如果你是一家类似Facebook这样的“成长型”公司，你就没有任何借口以出售股份的方式筹集资金。要是他们发行债券融资，无疑将获得超额认购，意味着他们几乎不必支付任何利息——基本上是免费使用。此外，我确信任何一家银行都非常乐意为这家公司提供资金，以换取参与其投行业务的机会。忘掉缴税和其他托词吧，就凭这些就足以使得这项售股计划看起来非常可疑。

    所以说，Facebook公司显然无意间透露出它的真实看法。他们其实是在说，Facebook股票目前被高估了，也就是说，他们认为公司未来的业绩不会像市场预期的那么好。幸运的是，Facebook本周为我们提供了一个“不喜欢”按钮，那我也就恭敬不如从命，径直按下了。（财富中文网）

    译者：叶寒

    Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, will sell 41.4 million shares worth of stock in the company, worth $2.3 billion, to pay a tax bill, the company said. He apparently incurred the tax liability when he exercised the option to buy 60 million class B shares, which carries 10 times the voting power of Class A shares, the kind sold to schlubs like us.

    This will reduce Zuck's voting power from 58.8% to 56.1%, so he is still king of the hill in Menlo Park.

    Now, Zuck selling Facebook shares is the headline everyone is talking about, but that's really just the side story here. In my view, the real story is that Zuck's sale is part of a new public offering by Facebook (FB) of some 70 million Class A shares. Of that total, Zuck is contributing 41.35 million shares (the proceeds of which go to the IRS or whatever), while Facebook (the company) is offering 27 million shares, which is dilutive to existing shareholders.

    The company says it plans on using the money (roughly $1.5 billion) from its portion of the share sale "for working capital and other general corporate purposes."

    Excuse me? "General corporate purposes?" So Facebook is saying it is diluting its shareholders today (stock is down 2% this morning) to raise money so it can, well, essentially keep the lights on? Didn't the company just get a big chunk of money by going public, like, a year ago?

    This is disturbing on many levels. We all know that Facebook is seeing a decline in users and that it isn't as "cool" as it once was among teens. Nevertheless, the company is making money. In fact it made $625 million in the third quarter of this year off of $2 billion in revenue. That isn't bad at all; in fact, it blew analysts' expectations away, who were expecting a more modest number on the revenue side. As a result, Facebook's shares soared. Overall, they have doubled this year as people anticipate stronger profit growth as the social network expands into mobile advertising.

    Facebook seems to be delivering and making money, making this whole share sale all the more odd. What could Facebook be needing so badly that it was willing to dilute its shareholders? I don't claim to know what's going on inside Menlo Park, but sitting here from New York, I can tell you that this sort of behavior is a red flag to investors.

    Put simply, this would only make sense if Facebook believes its shares are overvalued. Facebook declined to offer comment for this story.

    Why? First, debt is cheap -- very cheap. There is no excuse to be selling shares to raise cash in this environment, especially if you are supposedly a "growing" company like Facebook. If they did a debt offering, it would undoubtedly be oversubscribed, meaning that they could probably get away with paying little to no interest -- basically, free money. Furthermore, I am sure any bank would love to give the company cash in exchange for a piece of whatever investment banking deals they end up doing. Forget about the tax shields and all that other stuff -- these points alone are enough to make this share sale look suspect.

    So Facebook is clearly tipping its hand today. They are saying that their stock is overvalued and, as such, the company isn't going to perform as well as the market believes it will. Luckily, Facebook came out with a "dislike" button this week. I just pressed it.