Zuckerberg to employees: Stock price drop has been “painful” to watch

Facebook’s troubling stock performance hasn’t been lost on CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

At a companywide meeting earlier this month, the Facebook founder acknowledged the price drop, calling it “painful” for employees who had lost money since buying the stock, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Facebook’s stock value has fallen nearly fifty percent since the company went public in May, a loss in performance that not even the company’s stock-agnostic CEO can ignore. Zuckerberg’s recognition has also extended to Facebook employees, who have watched the value of their investment shrink over the past three months.

But while Zuckerberg empathizes with his employees, he says he’s confident the company’s fortunes will reverse as it capitalizes on the investments it made this year. The press, he says, just has no idea of what Facebook has planned.

News of Zuckerberg’s morale-boosting comes a day after the expiry of a stock lockup agreement allowed early investors to sell their shares. The selling splurge pushed Facebook’s stock to a new low of $19.69. While that’s bad, it could get worse: Three more lockup agreements are set to expire before the end of the year, freeing up owners of 1.4 billion shares to abandon the Facebook barge.

And Zuckerberg? For better or for worse, he’s likely to stick by his mantra: “Stay focused, keep shipping.”