Some Facebook Underwriters Helped Short Sellers
As traders at Morgan Stanley were frantically trying to shore up Facebook Inc.’s share price following the company’s initial public offering, other managers on the deal were helping short sellers bet that the newly minted stock would fall.
Trading desks at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., two of the firms that helped Morgan Stanley underwrite the IPO, were among those lending out Facebook shares that hedge funds needed for short sales, according to people familiar with the matter.