When you float your company at $38 and change and it then hits $19 and change, there might be an employee morale issue to address -- and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg did just that.
Zuckerberg told the troops in a companywide meeting that the stock tumble was "painful," according to the Wall Street Journal. Having downplayed the dropping share price for some time, the CEO told them the first unlock could hurt the company.
Early investors were allowed to sell their shares on Thursday, leading to a closing share price of $19.87. The platform's market cap is now $42.6 billion.
And with three more unlocks before the end of the year and another in May, investors and employees alike are looking for leadership because the waters are unlikely to settle anytime soon.
Some employees are reportedly unconcerned, telling the WSJ: "I'll take a short-term loss now."
What simply cannot be afforded is a drop off in innovation and overall product quality -- a potential issue if employee morale drops off or is too heavily tied to the share price.
