Analyst fired for talking to biz reporters

A Citigroup tech analyst has been fired from his job after he talked about Facebook’s initial public offering with business journalists.

Stephen Foley of the Financial Times writes, “Mr Mahaney, one of the most widely-respected and quoted analysts in his sector, was given a ‘letter of education’ in April this year about his failure to adhere to the bank’s internal policy about seeking approval before speaking to reporters, according to court documents filed in Massachusetts.

“The filing also reveals that an analyst in Mr Mahaney’s team sent an early draft of the bank’s research note on Facebook to a friend who worked for the TechCrunch blog, asking for feedback.

“Citigroup was one of the lead underwriters on the Facebook flotation in May and was given privileged access to Facebook management and financial information. That analyst, who was not named, was fired last month.

“The incident for which Mr Mahaney was fired this week took place in April. He told a reporter from the French business magazine Capital that he believed Google’s revenues from its YouTube video sharing site would outstrip his published forecasts.”

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