Zuckerberg acknowledges 'disappointing' stock performance

Sep 12, 2012 |

New York

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has acknowledged his company's IPO performance has been 'disappointing' but said he hopes his company's legacy of connecting people will outweigh its falling stock price.

"The performance of the stock has obviously been disappointing. We care about our shareholders," Zuckerberg said in his remarks to a tech conference in San Francisco, his first since Facebook's rocky initial public offering in May.

'It is not the first up and down that we ever had. Ten, 20 years from now, the legacy of this company should be, we have connected everyone in the world' and enabled people to ''share the stuff we want to with the world. That's a lot," he said.

When asked whether the stock performance affected internal morale at the company, Zuckerberg said, "Well, you know it doesn't help. Maybe some people will leave. I actually think it's a great time for people to join and also for people to stay and double down."

The 28-year old billionaire said his company's focus will be to continue building new things in the face of criticism. "I would rather be in the cycle where people underestimate us," he said at the annual conference sponsored by technology blog TechCrunch.

"I think a bunch of people are underestimating us," he said adding "I just want to keep building good stuff".

Facebook's much anticipated IPO failed to meet expectations of investors and the company's stock price has been falling.

The company's shares fell from USD 38 to Tuesday's closing price of USD 19.43. He said Facebook's performance over the next three to five years will be the company's ability to transition and "monetise its audience" on mobile devices.

After Facebook had announced its bid to go public, Zuckerberg has written a letter to would-be investors saying his company's mission was not just to make money for its own sake. He disclosed at the conference that he had composed that letter on his mobile device.

"I do everything on my phone," he said but added that the company was not making its own phone. He said a team of Facebook engineers was working on improving Facebook's search tool.

"At some point we will do it," he said. Zuckerberg also gave a casting call to coders, saying it is a 'great time' to work at Facebook.

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