Morgan Stanley fined USD 5mln for 'improperly influencing' analysts before Facebook IPO
London, Dec 19 (ANI)
American multinational financial services corporation Morgan Stanley has been fined five million dollars by the Massachusetts securities regulator for 'improperly influencing' analysts before Facebook's share sale.
According to the regulator, there was a conflict of interest when a senior banker coached a Facebook official on what to say to analysts.
It also claimed that the two firms failed to tell all investors that revenues may be lower than forecast, the BBC reports.
According to the report, the regulators claimed that during Facebook's roadshow, the social network informed Morgan Stanley that it expected revenue for the second-quarter of the year to be at the lower end of its forecast of between 1.1bn and 1.2bn dollars.
Analysts had initially forecast that it would either be at the higher end of that range, or above it, the report said.
At the same time, Facebook also said that annual revenues for 2012 may miss its initial forecast of 5 billion dollars by as much as 3.5 percent.
According to the report, the problem affecting Facebook was that an increasing number of people were visiting its website via mobile devices, such as phones or tablet computers.