Mark Zuckerberg answered for half an hour questions coming from shareholders upset by the 37% decline of Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) shares since the listing last year. The questions were an indication of shareholders’ dissatisfaction at the first annual meeting and show how much Zuckerberg has to do to convince Wall Street that he can build the business that investors had hoped for when they bought shares of the company.
Facebook chief admitted in earlier remarks that the stock evolution was frustrating. “We’re disappointed with the performance of the stock over the last year. We expect there’s going to be fluctuations,” Zuckerberg said.
Zuckerberg defended company’s business model and a series of recent decisions, such as changes aimed at mobile applications and advertising new products. Towards the end of the speech, Zuckerberg said that the stock did not affect his plans on Facebook. His comments did not calm upset investors.
Many of them have used the time they had spent talking at the microphone to express their dissatisfaction with stock evolution and to press company’s bosses to give details about how they will benefit shareholders. One of the participants called the evolution of the shares as a “disaster.”
Zuckerberg tried to reassure the shareholders that he cares about the money he should bring investors. Facebook head said that he spends most of his time analyzing products in various stages, including advertising, and is actively involved in the initiation of new projects that will bring profit.
During an extensive discussion, Zuckerberg reiterated company’s position on government requests of data access, after the media published information that Facebook and other Internet companies made available to the National Security Agency (NSA) such information.
Zuckerberg said that government agencies can not connect to Facebook servers and if they have a warrant for specific data, the company will follow similar procedures to those used for court orders. Facebook gives “minimum amount of information” to comply with the law, he added.
Despite pressures during the general meeting, shareholders approved, as expected, proposals of Facebook management, including the confirmation of Facebook directors. Jim Breyer, a member of the Board of Directors since 2005, will step down at the end of this year.
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