Community Corner: Free Comic Book Day, warthogs' zoo debut

Community Corner: Free Comic Book Day, warthogs' zoo debut

Community events for May 5-6, 2012, include Next 50 Water & Habitat Weekend at Seattle Center; the Medieval Festival at Camlann Medieval Village in Carnation; and low-tide walks at Puget Sound beaches.

Next 50 Water & Habitat Weekend
Information, displays and interactive activities for all ages on water and watersheds, community ecosystems and local habitats, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday, Next 50 Plaza, Alki Courtyard and Intiman Playhouse, Seattle Center; Seattle; free (206-684-7200 or www.seattlecenter.com).
Opening Day: Seattle Yacht Club celebration of the opening day of boating season; Windermere Cup rowing competition with American and international crews racing University of Washington teams, 10:05 a.m.; parade of 250 boats, noon Saturday, Montlake Cut, Seattle (www.seattleyachtclub.org).
Free Comic Book Day: One free comic book per person Saturday, Golden Age Collectables, Pike Place Market, Seattle (206-622-9799) and other local comic book stores (www.freecomicbookday.com).
Warthogs and Visayan warty pigs debut: New African warthogs in the African Savanna and Visayan warty pigs in the Tropical Forest exhibit, keeper talks, activities, free piggy banks to the first 500 kids, 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, Woodland Park Zoo, 5500 Phinney Ave. N., Seattle; $11.50-$17.75 (206-548-2500 or www.zoo.org).

Master Gardeners Plant Sale: Native plants, perennials, ornamentals, veggies, tomatoes, garden art vendors, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday, Center for Urban Horticulture, 3501 N.E. 41st St., Seattle (www.mgfkc.org/events/plant-sale).
Medieval Festival for May: Medieval games, minstrels, archery, blacksmithing, 1 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, Maypole dance and May Queen, 4:30 p.m.; lunch available noon-3 p.m., Saturday-Sunday, Camlann Medieval Village, 10320 Kelly Road N.E., Carnation; $4-$6 (425-788-8624 or www.camlann.org).
Bicycle Sunday: Lake Washington Boulevard closed to vehicle traffic for bicyclists, walkers, runners and skaters, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday; Lake Washington Boulevard from Mount Baker Beach to Seward Park, Seattle; professionally fitted bicycle helmets available for $10, 1-4 p.m., Seward Park (206-684-4075 or www.seattle.gov/parks).
"The Very Hungry Caterpillar": Seattle Children's Theatre drama story for kids ages 2-8, noon Sunday, Secret Garden Bookshop, 2214 N.W. Market St., Seattle; free (206-789-5006 or www.secretgardenbooks.com).
Seattle Aquarium Beach Naturalists: Explore sea life at low tide, drop in anytime 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Sunday; Carkeek Park, Golden Gardens, South Alki and Lincoln Park in Seattle; Richmond Beach in Shoreline; Seahurst Park, Burien in Des Moines Beach; free (www.seattleaquarium.org).

Read More

Facebook IPO will make Mark Zuckerberg richer than Microsoft CEO

Facebook IPO will make Mark Zuckerberg richer than Microsoft CEO

Facebook Inc.’s $11.8 billion initial public offering will cement the status of 27-year-old Mark Zuckerberg as one of the world’s richest men and put his social network among the highest-valued companies in the U.S.
Facebook is offering about 337.4 million shares for $28 to $35 each, according to a regulatory filing yesterday. At the upper end of that range, the co-founder’s stake would be $17.6 billion, making him richer than Microsoft Corp.’s Steve Ballmer and Russian steel billionaire Vladimir Lisin, who are both twice his age, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Zuckerberg, who began the service for Harvard classmates as a 19-year-old in his dorm room, built Facebook into the most popular social-networking site in the world, topping 900 million users last quarter. Now he has to prove he has the leadership skills to deliver enough growth to justify the company’s valuation, said Paul Saffo, managing director at Discern Analytics in San Francisco.

“The whole story about the Silicon Valley is hard-working, entrepreneurial tech geeks getting big payoffs,” said Saffo, whose firm provides analytics to institutional investors. “The challenge he has is: Can Mark grow as quickly as his company has grown? And can Mark grow faster than his company has grown? Because, of course, that’s what a leader must do.”
Passing MySpace
Zuckerberg, who has developed a reputation for introducing new products quickly, helped the company supplant MySpace as the most popular social service while also navigating competitive threats from Google Inc., Twitter Inc. and other social-media sites. The company has expanded its appeal by enabling developers to build applications on top of the platform, offering users music, movies, e-commerce options and other extras.
“They stayed nimble, like a startup of a smaller size,” said Jeremiah Owyang, an analyst at Altimeter Group. “The culture encouraged them to experiment and innovate on a regular basis, even when they had the lead.”
Facebook’s IPO would value the company at as much as $96 billion. It is offering 180 million of the shares, while existing owners such as Accel Partners and Digital Sky Technologies are offering 157.4 million shares, according to the filing. Zuckerberg is offering 30.2 million of his 533.8 million shares. The majority of his net proceeds will be used to pay taxes associated with exercising a stock option.
Majority Control
He may control about 57 percent of the voting power of Facebook’s outstanding capital stock after the offering, according to the filing.
Zuckerberg has shown patience in bringing Facebook to the brink of an IPO. After starting the company in 2004, he rolled it out to other college campuses, reaching 1 million users by the end of the year. Zuckerberg also received a key investment from Peter Thiel, who made much of his wealth as a co-founder of online-payments service PayPal, later sold to EBay Inc.
It wasn’t until 2006 that Zuckerberg opened up the service so anyone could join. Facebook accumulated 12 million users by the end of 2006.
Zuckerberg was able to woo other investors along the way to handle the growing user base. That included software company Microsoft, Accel and Russian investor Digital Sky.
Facebook, while preparing for the IPO, has remained active on other fronts. After being sued by Yahoo! Inc. in March for patent infringement, the company has been looking to buy intellectual property from other owners of it. Facebook plans to spend $550 million on some of the patents Microsoft had earlier said it would purchase from AOL Inc.
Microsoft CEO Ballmer’s net worth was $15.4 billion as of yesterday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Read More