Facebook Shares Sag as First IPO Lockup Ends

With the expiration of the first in a series of lockups that had kept insiders from selling their shares off, some 271 million Facebook shares became eligible for sale Thursday. And though it’s not known if any of them have actually been sold off, their sudden availability is fast dragging the company’s stock price down.

Facebook shares fell below $20 Thursday, slipping about 7 percent to an all-time low of $19.69. That’s nearly half their $38 IPO price.

Bad news, indeed. And there’s potential for more. Facebook has a few lockups still in place. Four, to be exact.

On Oct. 15, 249 million shares will become eligible for sale. On Nov. 14, the lockup will expire on 1.32 billion shares. On Dec. 14, another 49 million shares. And on May 13, 2013, the final 47 million shares. The expiration of these lockups isn’t likely to have any significant long-term effects on Facebook’s stock, but they pretty much guarantee further volatility ahead.

(Image courtesy of obeyken/Flickr)