Shareholders Sue Facebook | Disqus Adds New Features

Click here to receive the Morning Social Media Newsfeed via email. Facebook Faces Shareholder Lawsuits (AP) Facebook’s fourth day of trading as a public company saw an increase in the company’s stock price and shareholder lawsuits related to the social network’s botched initial public offering. Several shareholders who bought stock in the IPO have filed lawsuits against Facebook, its executives and Morgan Stanley, the IPO’s lead underwriter. Reuters Meanwhile, Facebook is considering a stock-listing proposal put forward by the New York Stock Exchange, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters, in the wake of a disappointing initial public offering last week on the rival NASDAQ bourse. Facebook has exchanged phone calls and emails with NYSE Euronext and are considering their pitch, the source said without elaborating on specifics. CNET Facebook plans to open its first Middle East office in Dubai next week, according to the Associated Press. This United Arab Emirates city is considered the Silicon Valley of the region, so it makes sense that the social network would put its Persian Gulf hub here. The Hill Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday began to look into the debacle of what was supposed to be the social networking company’s crowning achievement. Lawmakers want to know whether institutional investors got a sneak peek at an updated analysis, written just before the initial public offering, that gave a more pessimistic assessment of Facebook’s future revenues. AllFacebook Some Facebook page administrators are seeing messages in the top-right-hand corners of their timeline pages urging them to create Facebook ads and containing a “promote your page” button. Have you seen similar messages on Facebook pages you manage? Mashable A Facebook page and a six-minute video tell the story of a 12-year-old girl whose mother died when she was 3 years old, grew up being abused by her father and bullied on her Facebook page. Eventually, the girl commits suicide. There’s just one problem: this is all fake. Oracle Buys Social Media Marketing Startup Vitrue (AdAge) Oracle snapped up Atlanta, Ga.-based social media management company Vitrue for a reported $300 million as consolidation in the space picks up. Big enterprise companies such as Oracle, Adobe and Salesforce have all acquired companies that manage or measure social media as they attempt to add these capabilities to their offerings. TechCrunch Vitrue had taken $33 million in funding over the years and grown to become one of the most popular solutions for big companies trying to win Facebook fans and push out marketing messages to the newsfeed. Vitrue, according to a source, was on course for revenues of just under $100 million this year, although TechCrunch has other sources disputing it may have been that high. PCWorld The company helps corporations disseminate their messages and advertising across popular consumer social media platforms, such as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube and Google+. It coordinates social media marketing campaigns, analyzes the results and helps organizations interact with individual consumers on a more individual basis. Disqus Adds New Features to Upcoming Release, Including Share a Comment Thread (The Next Web) Disqus is preparing to release a massive upgrade to its commenting system, which it’s calling “D12″. The Disqus 2012 update is in beta right now, and the company is making some tweaks based on feedback that it’s getting. New York Lawmakers Surprised That Some People Think Anonymous Comments are Free Speech (BetaBeat) New York legislators involved with the proposed Internet Protection Act are getting a lot of calls today, and they’re not quite sure why. It must have been that Wired story; or maybe it was the pickup on Slashdot. But the proposed legislation, “in relation to protecting a person’s right to know who is behind an anonymous internet posting,” has provoked chagrin, to say the least, in the blogosphere. Zynga Defends Online Game Draw Something, Aided by DreamWorks (The Wall Street Journal) Zynga has faced plenty of questions since buying the maker of Draw Something, an online game for mobile devices whose rapid rise and sale seemed a symbol for the social networking boom. Now, it is trying to provide some answers. The San Francisco, Calif.-based company today plans to announce its first deal since the acquisition to place additional advertising in the game. Zynga believes the agreement with DreamWorks is a sign of the revenue-generating possibilities of the controversial transaction. Matt Pinfield Explains How Skype, Spotify and Kickstarter are Changing the Music Industry (VentureBeat) One of the good things to come out of MTV before devolving into a cable network of crappy reality TV shows is 120 Minutes host Matt Pinfield — a man who knows his music as well as he knows the music industry. The former Columbia Records vice president said he remembers that for a long time music labels were thinking tech would just go away, which obviously hasn’t happened. Today, there are a number of streaming music and discovery services such as Pandora, MOG, Rdio, Shazam, Songza, and of course Spotify. How Pinterest Boosted Jetsetter’s Traffic by 150 Percent (Mashable) It’s not surprising that Jetsetter’s most recent initiative was a “pin-it-to- win-it” Pinterest contest. It’s also not surprising that the contest performed very well. Pinterest is the darling of the interwebs, with staggering referral traffic and a rapidly growing user base, and it’s natural that stunning travel photos spread like wildfire on the social media platform. Schmidt: Google+ is 'Absolutely' a Success (TechRadar) Google chairman Eric Schmidt said that there's "a lot more to come" from Google+ and that it's been unfairly compared to Facebook. Schmidt was in good form during the talk at Google's Big Tent event taking place just outside of London but was keen to defend against recent rumors that Google is rethinking its commitment to Google+. Does Social Beat Search, or Does 'Peacocking' Get in the Way? (paidContent) Most people want to share content that makes them look good — a concept that Gravity CEO Amit Kapur called “peacocking” at paidContent 2012. Sometimes that urge is a good thing, but sometimes it gets in the way of delivering a truly personalized online experience.

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Shareholders Sue Facebook | Disqus Adds New Features | Oracle Acquires Vitrue

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