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Facebook's early investors and a handful of directors will become eligible on Thursday to sell stock they own in the social networking company. It marks the beginning of a time-honored process for public companies, one that will give many Facebook employees the same right to sell their shares this fall.

The Federal Trade Commission voted Friday to finalize its settlement with Facebook, resolving charges that the social network exposed details about users' lives without getting the required legal consent.

Kevin Systrom's smartest move was to sell Instagram to Facebook early, before having to deliver even an iota of revenue. My prediction is that we’ll look back on Facebook's acquisition of Instagram as a bust—much in the same way we now view News Corp.’s purchase of Myspace, AOL’s purchase of Bebo, and Excite@Home’s purchase of Blue Mountain Arts.

...There’s also the issue that these mobile ads are completely new. Users don’t know any better and happen to click on them. However, over time (and probably pretty quickly), they will learn to avoid these new ads. When banner ads began in the 1990s, CTRs over 5% were common. They are currently 0.2 – 0.3%.

Facebook’s stock price reached a new low Thursday as shares of the world's largest social network fell below $20 for the first time, down by nearly half from its $38 initial public offering price.

A year after they first began buying Facebook stock, many Fidelity Investments fund managers are shrinking their stakes in the company.

A commerce site called Limited Run, in announcing that it was deleting its Facebook page, claimed that 80 percent of its ad-clicks on Facebook came from "bots" or automated accounts, and only a fifth from genuine users.

Facebook’s results illustrated a reality for social media: It’s a soft sell medium in which advertising may not be that interesting or relevant to consumers. This is important because it means the revenue potential for social media companies such as Facebook may not be as high as many people assumed.

Some companies are leaning on social media like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare for advice on what products to bring to market.

Facebook‘s first quarterly report is inspiring few new friends. The social network swung to a loss in the most recent period, casting fresh doubts on the company’s ability to monetize its giant user base. The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company posted a $157 million, 8 cents a shares, loss in the quarter, down from a $240 million profit. Excluding hefty stock compensation charges, Facebook earned $295 million, 12 cents a share. That meets the Wall Street forecast.