Goldman Fumbles Facebook Offering
In early January, Goldman Sachs landed one of the hottest deals of the new year, managing a private placement for Facebook that valued the social media giant at $50 billion. The deal, besides generating millions in fees, looked to put Goldman in pole position to eventually lead Facebook's very lucrative initial public offering, as long as Goldman didn't screw up the private placement — which is exactly what it did. Instead of keeping the transaction private, many of the details were leaked to the press. Goldman was questioned by the Securities and Exchange Commission about the offering and was eventually forced to exclude its U.S. customers from participating, just days after touting how great the deal was to its top clients. Relations between Facebook and Goldman have reportedly gone south.