Since Facebook’s (Nasdaq: FB) hugely hyped and highly anticipated initial public offering on May 18 at $38, shares have been sliced in half, hitting a low of $19.01 in trading today (Friday).
Now, chatter is swirling that CEO Mark Zuckerberg should step down and let a more experienced executive take the helm.
“There is a growing sense that Mark Zuckerberg, talented though he may be, is in over his hoodies as CEO of a multibillion-dollar public company,” Sam Hamadeh, head of research firm PrivCo, told the Los Angeles Times. “While in many cases a company founder can, and does, grow into the job, things are happening so quickly that there is precious little time here for Zuckerberg to do that.”
Fueling the sentiment is Facebook’s steady descent since its calamitous IPO. On Thursday, as the first lockup period ended, which allowed early investors and venture capitalists to unburden their portfolio of battered shares, the stock hit a fresh low.
Facebook’s shares closed Thursday at $19.87, a far cry from its debut price and peak of $45 a share.
