During the week Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) came public, the social network company got a shock from General Motors (NYSE:GM) marketing chief Joel Ewanick. He nixed the carmaker’s advertising on the site, which certainly spooked IPO investors. But now the folks at Facebook are probably smiling — because Ewanick has been ousted.
Yet he still has managed to provide even more news for IPO investors. According to a report from CNBC, GM took the action because of Ewanick’s negotiation of a sponsorship deal with Manchester United, which is the most popular soccer club in the world — and is planning to come public in the U.S. soon!
The sponsorship should be a boost to the public offering. Consider that Manchester United is trying to show that its brand is truly global.
Interestingly enough, Ewanick took his position at GM about seven months before the company’s own IPO. Unfortunately, he was not able to provide much pizazz as the stock is down about 43% from its offering.
Tom Taulli runs the InvestorPlace blog IPOPlaybook, a site dedicated to the hottest news and rumors about initial public offerings. He also is the author of “All About Short Selling” and “All About Commodities.” Follow him on Twitter at @ttaulli. As of this writing, he did not own a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
A long-time follower of the IPO scene, back in 1999 Tom started one of the first sites in the space called WebIPO. It was a place where investors got research as well as access to deals for the dot-com boom. Tom also wrote the top-selling book, Investing in IPOs. In it, he covers all the aspects of analyzing an IPO, such as reading the prospectus, detecting the risk factors and understanding some of the arcane regulations. But don’t worry — if that process is too intimidating for you, thankfully Tom will do the legwork for you right here in the IPO Playbook blog.
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