It would be all too easy to say that Facebook s market meltdown is coming to an end. Afterall, Mark Zuckerberg s social network burned as much as $ 50 billion of shareholders wealth injust a couple months. To put that in context, since its debut on NASDAQ in May,Facebook has lost value nearly equal to Yahoo, AOL, Zynga, Yelp, Pandora, OpenTable,Groupon, LinkedIn, and Angie s List combined, plus that of the bulk of the publicly tradednewspaper industry:
As shocking as this utter failure may be to the nearly 1 billion faithful Facebook usersaround the world, it s no surprise to anyone who read the initial public offering prospectus . Worse still, all the crises that emerged when the companydebuted-overpriced shares, poor corporate governance, huge challenges to the core business,and a damaged brand-remain today. Facebook looks like a prime example of what Wall Streetcalls a falling knife-that is, one that can cost investors their fingers if they try to catch it.
Start with the valuation. To justify a stock price close to the lower end of theprojected range in the IPO, say $ 28 a share, Facebook s future growth would have needed tomatch that of Google seven years earlier. That would have required increasing revenue by some80 percent annually and maintaining high profit margins all the while.
That s not happening. In the first half of 2012, Facebook reported revenue of $ 2.24 billion, up38 percent from the same period in 2011. At the same time, the company s costs surged to $ 2.6 billion in the six-month period.
This so-so performance reflects the Achilles heel of Facebook s business model, which thecompany clearly stated in a list of risk factors associated with its IPO: it hasn t yet figured outhow to advertise effectively on mobile devices, The number of Facebook users accessing thesite on their phones surged by67 percent to 543 million in the last quarter, or more than half itscustomer base.
Numbers are only part of the problem. The mounting pile of failure creates a negativefeedback loop that threatens Facebook s future in other ways. Indeed, the more Facebook sdisappointment in the market is catalogued, the worse Facebook s image becomes. Not onlydoes that threaten to rub off on users, it s bad for recruitment and retention of talentedhackers, who are the lifeblood of Zuckerberg s creation.
Yet the brilliant CEO can ignore the sadness and complaints of his shareholders thanks tothe super- voting stock he holds. This arrangement also was fully disclosed at the time of theoffering. It s a pity so few investors apparently bothered to do their homework.
1. What can be inferred about Facebook from the first paragraph?
A.Its market meltdown has been easily halted.
B.It has increased trade with the newspaper industry.
C.It has encountered utter failure since its stock debut.
D.Its shareholders have invested $ 50 billion in a social network.
2. The crises Facebook is facing_____
A.have been disclosed in the IPO prospectus
B.are the universal risks Wall Street confronts
C.disappoint its faithful users
D.have existed for a long time
3. To make its stock price reasonable, Facebook has to____
A.narrow the IPO price range
B.cooperate with Google
C.keep enormously profitable
D.invest additional $ 2.6 billion
4. It can be inferred from the context that the "Achilles heel" refersto____
A.deadly weakness
B.problem unsolved
C.indisputable fact
D.potential risk
5. What effect will Facebook s failure in the market have?
A.Its users benefits will be threatened.
B.Talented hackers will take down the website.
C.The CEO will hold the super-voting stock.
D.The company s innovation strength will be damaged.
【参考答案】
1.C)。本题考查第一段的主旨大意。此种题型可以使用排除法，将各选项代入原文来验证对错。A)“脸谱网的市场崩溃已被轻而易举地制止了”，原文开篇指出，说脸谱网的市场崩溃将要结束未免太简单了.A)与原文不符，故排除;B)“脸谱网增加了与报纸业之间的商务往来”，原文首段末句plus that of… 中的that指的是value，意指脸谱网自登陆纳斯达克以来，损失的价值等同于几个大型互联网企业加上大部分报业价值的总和，B)与原文不符，故排除;C)“脸谱网自股票上市以来遭遇了巨大失败”，由第一段中的burned，lost等词可以推断脸谱网上市后遭遇了巨大失败，故为答案。
2.D)。事实细节题。D)‘‘已经存在很长时间了”，与定位句中remain today的意思相同，故为答案。
3.C)。本题考查脸谱网如何才能使其制定的股价合理，题干中的reasonable对应原文中的justify。定位句提到，要实现接近其公开募股说明书上的较低股价，比如每股28美元，这就要求脸谱网年收益增长要高达80%，并始终保持高利润率，故答案为c)。
4.A)。本段提到，脸谱网现在还未解决如何有效地在移动设备上做广告这一问题，而用手机登录其网站的用户数量却不断飙升，且文章通篇语义色彩都是消极的，故可推出此处应指脸谱网商业模式中的致命软肋，故答案为A)。
5.D)。由定位句可知，脸谱网在市场上的失意不仅会影响到用户，还会影响招募和挽留天才 黑客，而这些人正是扎克伯格创造力的命脉。由此推知，脸谱网的创新力会因其市场失意而受到损害，故答案为D)。
