马克•扎克伯格声称，Facebook的使命是将人们联系起来，并给予他们权力。而华尔街的真正使命是给予大人物权力和金钱。两者的使命互相冲突。猜猜哪个会获胜？当然是华尔街轻松胜出。这就是我们从Facebook首次公开募股的失败中得到的教训。

    这件事真的有点可笑，如果你喜欢金融黑色幽默的话。Facebook和以摩根士丹利（Morgan Stanley）为主的承销商们激发了人们对这次新股发行的热情。发行价区间最初为每股28至35美元，但最后被提高到了38美元。买家们都垂涎欲滴，有关这次新股发行的讨论简直震耳欲聋。

    然而，在最后关头，据说有些大型投资者拿到了一份分析，称Facebook的发展前景并非像较早前公告书中所描绘的那样美好。因此，似乎这些大玩家都降低了对Facebook首次公开募股的买入力度，甚至干脆取消了下单。纳斯达克上周五的交易乱象甚至也和这些最后关头的活动有关。Facebook股票就是在那天首次亮相的。

    大人物的退出，再加上可购买股票数量的增加，使个人投资者可以购买到更多的Facebook股票。他们按照38美元的全额零售价买入，然后眼睁睁地看着股价大幅滑落。我撰写本文时，Facebook的股价相比发行价已经下跌了16%，三天里的跌幅相当之大。

    当天取消IPO买单的大人物们现在有机会以30美元出头、而不是38美元的价格买入Facebook股票。我敢肯定，从个人的角度来说，他们那天的行为完全合法。然而，怀揣着发财梦想的散户们一度认为，自己能够以发行价购买Facebook股票简直是鸿运当头。但现在股价却下跌了6美元还多。即使他们没有割肉减仓，但他们在上周五买入的时候，价格是38美元每股，而他们原本可以等到现在以每股低于32美元的价格买入。上市首日从公开市场上以40多美元购买这只股票的人更是亏大了。

    这次新股发行的走势使谁成为了受益者？主要是在新股发行中套现的Facebook早期投资者。据最新文件显示，从扎克伯格到微软（Microsoft）再到各个风险投资基金的Facebook早期投资者在这次IPO发行中共出售了2.412亿股，而该公司本身只发售了1.8亿股。早期投资者出售的股票占到IPO交易股票的57%，这么大的比重实属罕见。

    Facebook上市前几周，我们发现有内部人士提供的股票不断增加。按照定义来看，这些人都是大人物。5月3日提交的文件首次列出了具体数字。Facebook在文件中声称，内部人士将出售1.574亿股。但他们实际上多出售了8,380万股。而Facebook的股票发行量仍然保持在最初设定的水平上，也就是上文提到的1.8亿股。

    When Mark Zuckerberg's stated mission to connect and empower people collides with Wall Street's actual mission, which is to empower and enrich the well-connected, guess which mission prevails? Wall Street's, hands down. That's the lesson we can take from the debacle of Facebook's initial public stock offering.

    It's really sort of funny, if you're into dark financial humor. Facebook (FB) and its underwriters, led by Morgan Stanley, whipped up enthusiasm for the offering, whose initial price range was $28 to $35 a share, but ultimately was increased to $38. Buyers were salivating. The buzz about the offering was deafening.

    Then, at the last-minute, some big investors were reportedly given access to an analysis saying that the company's prospects weren't quite as rosy as the picture painted in its early disclosure documents. So the big guys, it appears, cut back or even canceled their orders to buy shares in the offering. This late-in-the-game burst of activity may even have had something to do with the Nasdaq foul up that roiled trading last Friday, the day the stock debuted.

    The exit of the well-connected, combined with an increase in the number of shares being offered, left more shares available for individual investors, who paid the full retail price of $38. Then, they got to watch the stock's sickening slide. As I write this, Facebook is trading 16% below its initial offering price -- a pretty nasty three-day loss.

    The well-connected who canceled their IPO orders -- all of which, I'm sure, is perfectly legal on everyone's part -- have had a chance to buy stock in the low 30s rather than at $38. Retail investors who were dreaming of riches and figured they were lucky to be able to buy at the offering price have gotten bagged for more than $6 a share. Even though they may not have actually sold at a loss, they paid $38 Friday for stock they could have bought at less than $32 today. The numbers are even worse for people who bought shares in the open market at prices in the 40s on the first day of trading.

    Who benefited from the way the offering has played out? Primarily, the early Facebook shareholders who cashed out in the offering. According to the most recent available document, early Facebook investors ranging from Zuckerberg to Microsoft (MSFT) to various venture capital funds sold a total of 241.2 million shares in the offering, compared with only 180 million shares sold by the company itself. It's unusual to see early investors selling this big a piece -- 57% -- of the shares being peddled in an IPO.

    During the weeks that the Facebook offering was pending, we saw a steady increase in the number of shares being offered by insiders, all of whom by definition are well-connected. In its May 3 filing, the first with specific numbers, Facebook said insiders would sell 157.4 million shares. They wound up selling an additional 83.8 million shares -- the company's piece of the offering remained where it had been originally set, at the aforementioned 180 million shares.