Facebook Insiders Unfriend Facebook Stock

An unsettling detail in an otherwise positive story about Facebook stock:

One former Facebook employee, who did not want to be named because he did not want to damage his relationship with onetime co-workers, said he expected other employees to cash in their stock options as soon as they could, and predicted that the stock’s woes could make it difficult to retain and hire talent. He no longer owns Facebook stock.

The former employee pointed out that many of the company’s early big backers — including Peter Thiel, an original angel investor, and Accel Partners, one of its first venture capital investors — sold a hefty portion of their shares at the peak price.

Mark Zuckerberg, a co-founder and chief executive, sold a portion of his shares in the offering, to meet his tax bills, the company said. All told, the early backers sold over $9 billion in shares.