But a CEO wedding announcement on the following day? The answer that new shareholders should be concerned with is simple: “You knew you had a founding CEO who was able to do whatever he wants, even though he is now playing with your money. Now you know he WILL do whatever he wants whenever he wants.”

Magically announcing a wedding at what was supposed to be a graduation party is one thing. But within a day of an IPO of this magnitude? Shareholders now have every reason to be concerned. Oh, and by the way, if you do not like it your only way to make a statement is to sell your shares. You have no vote in the company at all because Zuckerberg has well over 50% of the share votes either under ownership or under control.

It is hard to imagine that Zuck would go take a three-week honeymoon, but he could do that at some point and the poor Facebook shareholders would just have to sit there and take it. Again, your only vote as a shareholder is to sell your shares. Even then, do you think a guy now worth $20 billion or so really cares?

We warned you that there were 18 big risks in chasing Facebook ahead of the IPO, and all of these risks are still present. We never thought that there were two more: 19) CEO decides to distract himself with his own marriage status as just a small deal, and 20) CEO could go take a long vacation/honeymoon immediately.

Who knows what Zuckerberg’s living situation will be now and who knows if he and his now-wife will decide to go take a great vacation and honeymoon. I would if I was in his shoes, at some point, but not the weekend after an IPO. Shareholders should care what this means, but they better remember over and over that they were warned about the corporate governance here as a controlled entity (over and over, and over).

As of 6:50 PM EST on Sunday night there have been “853,293 people like this” on Zuckerberg’s Facebook status page. If any of those people are shareholders liking this, well let’s just say that they have a conflict of interest over “liking” their own money.

Barron’s wrote about the new downside risks about Facebook shares falling if underwriters choose not to support the IPO like they did on Friday at the $38.00 share price. That was without considering the CEO would sneak out and get married the same weekend.

JON C. OGG

Faber notes that while the number of job cuts are not yet known, sources indicate that the turnaround of the company is going to include thousands of layoffs.

The question that has to be asked here is one of relevance.  H-P is a DJIA component and it is worth under $44 billion in market capitalization since the stock is down more than half from the peak in early 2011.  This company employed a whopping 349,600 employees as of October 31, 2011 per its annual report.

What is so sad here is that the market is completely discounting H-P.  Literally, this stock trades at less than 6-times its expected earnings.  The company was going to jettison its PC business, but the turnaround plan under Meg Whitman determination was that it would just cost too much to break the PC unit out of H-P.

The market either just does not believe that H-P can live up to its earnings through time or it has just reset what the company’s valuation really is.  Under 6-times earnings is not expensive by any count as long as those earnings can be maintained.  Rival (at least in PC sales) Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) now trades at only about 7.5-times its forward earnings.

H-P is already loaded up with enough debt of over $25 billion even if it does have a $19 billion cash and liquidity arsenal.  Earnings are next week and the layoffs are expected to be announced sometime around that report.  The current targets for the April-end quarter are $0.91 EPS and $29.9 billion in sales according to Thomson Reuters.

H-P is up three-cents at $22.06 and the 52-week trading range is $21.50 to $37.70.

Apparently the slogan on a tee-shirt is true, “The beatings will continue until morale improves.”

JON C. OGG

In an effort to smooth out the volatility, the four-week average fell by 4,750 to 375,000.

The army of unemployed, measured by the continuing claims and reported with a one-week lag, rose by 18,000 to 3,265,000.

Today’s data is effectively an ‘unemployment-neutral’ report.  Of course, if the Labor Department keeps up with its policy of not counting those who are no longer participating in the labor force then the unemployment rate could continue coming down.

JON C. OGG

If you go all the way to page 14 under the “Transactions with Related Persons” section after the disclosure about the Oklahoma City Thunder that is where you find the goodies. This is the “Founder Well Participation Program” and it shows the sums that Aubrey McClendon got from the well participation program.  After that, it also shows that the Map Sale was rescinded.

In order to avoid any data confusion and in order to avoid any contextual issues, we have run this verbatim from the proxy materials.  The proxy noted, “The Board and Aubrey voluntarily renegotiated the terms of the FWPP to provide for early termination on June 30, 2014, 18 months before the previous termination date of December 31, 2015, pursuant to a letter agreement previously filed with the SEC. Aubrey will receive no compensation of any kind in connection with the early termination of the FWPP. Further, to address requests for more information, Aubrey voluntarily disclosed personal financial and operational information regarding his oil and gas investments through the FWPP.”

The company has reaffirmed that it plans to nominate an independent non-Executive Chairman.  Here are the full details of the WELL PARTICIPATION PLAN as follows:

The FWPP permits Mr. McClendon, the Company’s co-founder, to participate and invest as a working interest owner in new wells drilled by the Company. In 2005, the FWPP was documented as a formal plan containing substantially the same terms as prior agreements with the Company’s two co-founders that had been in place since the Company’s initial public offering in 1993. Shareholders approved the FWPP on June 10, 2005. The participation of co-founder Tom L. Ward terminated following his separation from the Company in 2006. The Company believes the FWPP fosters and promotes the development and execution of the Company’s business by aligning the interests of Mr. McClendon and the Company. Mr. McClendon has continually participated in the FWPP since the Company’s initial public offering in 1993, except during the five-quarter period from January 1, 1999 to March 31, 2000. The Board and Mr. McClendon recently renegotiated the terms of the FWPP to provide for the early termination of the FWPP on June 30, 2014, 18 months before the end of its current term on December 31, 2015, pursuant to a letter agreement previously filed with the SEC on the Company’s Form 8-K on May 2, 2012. Mr. McClendon will receive no compensation of any kind in connection with the early termination of the FWPP.

Under the FWPP, Mr. McClendon has the right to participate in either all or none of the wells spudded by or on behalf of the Company during each calendar year. Prior to the beginning of each year, Mr. McClendon must provide written notice to the members of the Compensation Committee of his election to participate in the FWPP and his proposed working interest percentage for that year. His working interest percentage may not exceed a 2.5% working interest in a well and is not effective for any well where the Company’s working interest after Mr. McClendon’s participation election would be reduced to below 12.5%. Subject to these limitations, if Mr. McClendon elects to participate in the FWPP, he must participate in all wells spudded by or on behalf of the Company during the given calendar year and cannot elect to participate on a well-by-well basis. In September 2011, Mr. McClendon elected to participate in the FWPP for the 2012 calendar year at the maximum 2.5% working interest permitted, the same participation percentage that Mr. McClendon has elected for the past nine years.

Smoothing the jobless claims data by the four-week average shows that this reading on claims fell by 5,250 to 379,000.

The good news here is that we are not going right back in the direction of 400,000 claims each week.  The bad news is that these numbers are not helping the jobs and payrolls situation outside of the efforts of lower and lower workforce participation.

JON C. OGG

Today’s report showed that the nonfarm payrolls grew by only 115,000.  Bloomberg had estimates of 165,000 although the whisper number had to be lower because of the weaker than expected jobs numbers that were released by ADP and TrimTabs earlier this week.

The notion that a larger than expected drop in the weekly jobless claims on Thursday would have allowed for a lower number is probably not in the cards. Private payrolls came in at 130,000 versus the Bloomberg consensus of 178,000. Government payrolls shrank by 15,000.  he broader measure of unemployment which includes those seeking jobs, underemployed, and part-time was steady at 14.5%.

These are two of the caveats that need to be addressed, because these are where the conspiracy theorists are going to harp:  the total workforce shrank by 342,000 and the labor participation rate dropped to 63.6%.  There was also an expiration of unemployment insurance benefits in nine states which may have aided the shrinking of the participation rate.

JON C. OGG

Net income was up over 100% to $5.0 million for the first quarter; and the non-GAAP net income for the first quarter was up closer to 200% to $16.9 million (versus $5.8 million for the first quarter of 2011). LinkedIn’s adjusted EBITDA was $38.1 million in the first quarter, or 20% of revenue, compared to $13.3 million for the first quarter of 2011, or 14% of revenue. Revenue from Hiring Solutions rose 121% to $102.6 million, or 54% of total revenue in the first quarter of 2012 versus 49% in the first quarter of 2011.

Revenue from Marketing Solutions rose 73% to $48.0 million, or 26% of total revenue in the first quarter of 2012 versus 30% in the first quarter of 2011.

Revenue from Premium Subscriptions rose 91% to $37.9 million, or 20% of total revenue in the first quarter of 2012 versus 21% of revenue in the first quarter of 2011.

Revenue from the U.S. was $120.8 million and represented 64% of total revenue in the first quarter; Revenue from international markets was $67.6 million and represented 36% of total revenue in the first quarter.

Q2-2012 Guidance: Revenue for the second quarter of 2012 is projected to range between $210 million to $215 million and Thomson Reuters has an estimate of $207.93 million. Other targets as follows: adjusted EBITDA between $40 million and $42 million; Depreciation and amortization between $18.5 million and $19.5 million; and stock-based compensation between $18 million and $19 million.

Full Year 2012 Guidance: Raised revenues to a new range of $880 million to $900 million from the prior range of $840 million to $860 million; Thomson Reuters has estimates of $876.8 million. LinkedIn sees the following adjustment as well: revised its expected adjusted EBITDA range to $170 million to $175 million from the prior range of $155 million to $165 million; depreciation and amortization has increased to $75 million to $85 million from $70 million to $80 million; and stock-based compensation has increased to $80 million to $90 million from $65 million to $75 million.

LinkedIn shares closed up 2.8% at $109.41 and the post-IPO range of less than the last year has been $55.98 to $122.70. It also has a market cap of $11.2 billion. At the current consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters for 2012, LinkedIn’s closing price generates a forward valuation of 173-times earnings. Admittedly, that is a bit out of whack considering that LinkedIn has beat on earnings and guided most other metrics higher.

LinkedIn shares are now up 10% or so at $121.00 in the after-hours session. If this level remains, it seems that another opportunity for shareholders to sell more shares may come about.

JON C. OGG

Weekly jobless claims came in at -27,000 to 365,000 and that is a better trend than we had been seeing in recent weeks. Bloomberg had estimates of 378,000.  The report from last week was revised to  from a preliminary report of 388,000 up to 392,000.

A smoothing measure is the four-week average rose by only 750 jobs to 383,500.  The army of unemployed is measured by the continuing claims, with a one-week lag, and that was shown to have decreased by 53,000 down to 3.276 million.

Investors have worried about the non-farm payrolls data for Friday’s unemployment report since both the TrimTabs and ADP preliminary data have indicated much weaker than expected jobs creation.  The unemployment rate is expected to remain static at 8.2% due to poor ‘workforce participation rates.’

Friday may be given a bit of a reprieve based on today’s weekly claims but the underlying fear is that the numbers could come in far less than what had been expectations of 180,000 or so in new job creations expected earlier in the week.  This is also the last report before the college graduates are out interviewing in May for their first job out of college.

JON C. OGG

Friday’s expectation for nonfarm payrolls is expected to be 165,000 or so per the consensus target for April from Bloomberg’s survey of economists.  That is against only 120,000 in March.  It is now looking like the number will not only be shy of expectations.  The reading from the Labor Department could now even show a sequential decline.

ADP showed this morning that only 119,000 payrolls were added in April.  Dow Jones had a target of 175,000 and Bloomberg was even higher at 183,000 for consensus targets.

TrimTabs is projecting that the U.S. economy added an anemic 116,000 jobs in April.  That is down by 23% from a revised 150,000 jobs in March.

TrimTabs noted, “While the consensus view is that the BLS will announce the creation of 170,000 jobs, this more optimistic forecast does not jive with TrimTabs real-time withholding tax based results.  Not only does real-time data say employment growth is less robust than government sources report, wage and salary growth is considerably lower than that reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.”

If the Labor Department manages to show any large gains or any magic improvements to the unemployment rate again, the accusations of data manipulation are going to fly.  It just does not look as though the Labor market is showing that much resilience.

Sadly, this is also right before the waves and waves of college graduates are trying to enter the workforce.

JON C. OGG

Boeing machinists walked off the job in 2008. Boeing’s C-17 plant in Los Angeles was shut in the summer of 2010 because workers were upset with the company’s benefits offer. There was more trouble with unions, which have members who work at Boeing, late last year. Machinists pressured Boeing then about the construction of a plant in South Carolina. The battle was great enough to involve the National Labor Relations Board. The UAW would never have had similar leverage at the Big Three over the past four years. And the future power of that union has been undermined at the car companies, with the agreement of the unions oddly enough, in exchange for a part of the financial turnaround of Detroit.

UAW workers at GM used to get among the best benefits given by any U.S. company. Hourly wages were high enough that, combined with these benefits, GM lost its margin advantage over Japanese rivals. The years and years of extraordinary compensation are over. New blue-collar workers at GM get a fraction of what their predecessors did. But GM paid 47,500 blue-collar workers $7,000 each earlier this year because of the car company’s large profits.

Caterpillar workers can strike. They have pay and benefits to maintain. Caterpillar’s success allowed them to keep much of what they are fighting for now. GM workers could not do the same. All each of them gets is $7,000.

Douglas A. McIntyre