Facebook shares plumb new depths, below $30 a share

By Alistair Barr

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc shares slid b elow $ 30 to a new low on Tuesday as nervous investors fled the company's shares, concerned about the social network's long-term growth prospects and an initial offering price that in retrospect may have been too rich.

Shares of Facebook fell nearly 9 percent to $29.05 in midafternoon trade, an all-time low. The eight-year-old company, which began life in Mark Zuckerberg's dorm room, has now shed more than $20 billion in value since its controversial and glitch-ridden market debut at $38 on May 18.

A software error on Nasdaq OMX Group Inc's U.S. exchange delayed the start of trade by 30 minutes on Facebook's first day of trading, which was to have been the culmination of breakneck growth for the cultural and Internet phenomenon.

Instead, claims of selective disclosure in the days leading up to the IPO about Facebook's slowing revenue growth engulfed the company in controversy, as did perceptions among some investors that the stock had been overpriced coming out the gate.

Wall Street has long harbored concerns that Facebook, while boasting nearly a billion users worldwide and dominating Internet social-networking, would have difficulty translating its growing presence on smartphones and other mobile devices into revenue. Rivals Google Inc and Apple Inc