Facebook about IPO.. business comparison vs Google

Facebook filed for IPO recently and will go public in a little while.

Now to the numbers:
Facebook reports that it has about 845 million users. I would like to add a footnote to that. That should be 845 millions user accounts. I know several people who had created multiple accounts during the initial phase when fb let each email address to create an account.

Second, Facebook reports that it made $4.3 Billion. That translates to roughly $ 5.2 per user. Google, on the other hand reports $ 30 per user. Of course, I am slightly skeptical of that number too, but for what it's worth Google has been making real money for years now.

Third, Facebook's voting shares, will be controlled to over 56% by Mark Zuckenberg, the CEO. That leaves no powers in the hands of investors who would be putting in hard earned new money in..

So, I will be staying clear of Facebook because I see it as a gamble where I don't know the odds. I might as well as play that money in Santa Anita or the Kentucky Derby.. and have fun in the process.

ACTC Advanced Cell Technology Inc Advances on positive results

ACTC.OB a penny stock featured on this blog last year made some big advances Monday Jan 23, 2012, after preliminary findings of a study using Embryonic stem cells for the treatment of macular eye degeneration showed some positive findings.

The medical article is linked here (pdf) (fair use)

The excerpts from the discussion are:

We provide clinical evidence suggesting that
hESC-derived cells might be safely transplanted into
human patients (panel). In our study, we transplanted a
low dose (5×10⁴ cells) of RPE cells generated from hESCs
into one eye of two patients with different forms of
macular degeneration.

Our study is designed to test the safety and tolerability of hESC-RPE in patients with advanced-stage Stargardt’s macular dystrophy and dry age-related macular degeneration.

So far, the cells seem to have transplanted into both patients without abnormal proliferation, teratoma formation, graft rejection, or other untoward pathological reactions or safety signals. Continued follow-up and further study is needed. The ultimate therapeutic goal will be to treat patients earlier in the disease processes, potentially increasing the likelihood of photoreceptor and central visual rescue.

and the NY times article is available here.

Excerpts:
Both patients, who were legally blind, told researchers that they had gains in eyesight that were meaningful for them. One said she could see colors better and was able to thread a needle and sew a button for the first time in years. The other said she was able to navigate a shopping mall by herself.Still, it is hard to judge much from only two patients, especially when there was no control group given a placebo treatment.Indeed, Dr. Schwartz said that the improvement in vision of the woman who could go to the mall might have been a placebo effect, though he thought the improvement in the other patient did result from the implanted cells.Yet another reason to be cautious is that Advanced Cell Technology has had a reputation for publicizing its positive work, in part because it has often been on the brink of insolvency.

So, the key thing to keep in mind is that this is still a speculative stock, so be careful but be willing to take risks - like we did a year ago :)

Biotech: New Positions Initiated

Dynavax (DVAX) initiated at 3.32 on Friday Jan 6th, 2012 and closed at 3.62 for small profit. But might get back in using $5 Apr or July calls options.

INCY - initiated again at 16 for long term hold after some back and forth trading between 13.80 and 15. Missed the move from high 14's to the 16 due to lack of cash flow!! arggh!

Other stocks (no positions but good hopes): VRTX.


Current holds: MDCO (worth adding more in 18.50 to 19.20 range). LONG!!!

Coin Toss Method : INCY

After careful analysis of several factors that seem to affect share price of companies traded in the stock market, we have decided to make a forecast on some companies based on hope and coin tosses:

Incyte (ticker: INCY) - upgrade - new price target : $ 24 by December 17, 2011.

Nokia ADR (ticker: NOK) - upgrade - new price target - $ 10 by January 31, 2012.

Tata Motors (ADR) (ticker: TTM) - neutral to downgrade - price target - $ 18.50 by November 16, 2011 then eventually rising to $ 26 by March 1, 2012.

Medicines Company (ticker: MDCO) - new price target - $ 24.50 by December 30, 2011

All price and time forecasts are based on a healthy expected rate of return on investments held by me. There is no guarantee these stocks will behave as predicted, but if they did, I would be very happy and somewhat profitable! This is not a recommendation to buy or sell these stocks and definitely not a recommendation to short any of these.

Common Problem in Laptops 2eyb6ard err6r as4s eee

So you have probably arrived here because of a common problem that occurs with laptop users. You type something and instead see numbers and symbols appearing. This appears more when you type on the RIGHT side of the keyboard, away from qwerty.

qwerty 456*[
asdfgh 123-'
zxcvbn 0,.+

are these some errors you notice?

RELAX.. this is no big problem, you might have just pressed NUMLK or NUM LOCK key sequence by mistake.

In ASUS EEE pc laptops and netbooks, it is the FN + NumLK  key sequence.

FN key is in the left bottom area of your keyboard. NumLK is in the top right corner.
Hold them down together to release the number lock and your typing will become fine again!!

Good luck!!