SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The historic initial public offering of Facebook Inc did not go as planned on Friday, as the social networking company's sky-high valuation combined with trading glitches left the stock languishing near its offering price at the market close. Facebook shares, which opened up 11 percent, closed at $38.23 after a nail-biting last half hour of trading when the shares dipped to their $38 IPO price. Most investors had predicted a first-day pop. More than 576 million shares changed hands, setting a trading volume record for U.S. market debuts. ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Facebook Inc's modest debut on Friday may have averted a potential headache for the company and regulators, and kept at bay a debate over the role of "odd lots" in the marketplace. Shares of Facebook traded as high as $45, near the price of $50 that would keep many retail investors from placing a typical "round lot" order of 100 shares, because the total cost will be $5,000 - considered a threshold for many investors. By the end of regular trading on Friday, however, the stock closed at $38.23, just 23 cents, or 0.6 percent, above its initial public offering price. ...

After sucessfully going public with the largest-ever IPO for a tech company in history, Mark Zuckerberg had one problem left to address...what to set as his Facebook status.

(Reuters) - Yahoo Inc shares rose as much as 6.7 percent on Friday after a report that it was close to selling part of its valuable stake in the Alibaba Group. Shares of Yahoo climbed as high as $15.87 before easing to $15.64, up 5.2 percent. Yahoo and Alibaba Group, the Chinese Internet group that runs e-commerce site Alibaba.com, are close to an agreement that could happen as soon as Monday, according to a report in All Things D, citing unnamed sources.. Yahoo would sell one-half of its 40 percent stake back to Alibaba. ...

Ultra-Orthodox Jews who believe that the Internet threatens their way of life have rented the New York Mets' stadium for an unprecedented gathering on how to use modern technology in a religiously appropriate way.

Now that Facebook's finished its first day on the market, it's time to figure out what it all means. It ended the day at a price of $38.23 per share, almost exactly where it started the morning at $38 per share, does that mean today basically didn't happen? No. As you can see over at our live blog, it was an eventful day, which saw the stock peak at $45 per share, amid tech glitches and a resounding meh from the Internet. What does this mean for Facebook? America? The Internet? Me? You? Let's find out. 

(Reuters) - Yahoo Inc shares rose as much as 6.7 percent on Friday after a report that it was close to selling part of its valuable stake in the Alibaba Group. Shares of Yahoo climbed as high as $15.87 before easing to $15.64, up 5.2 percent. Yahoo and Alibaba Group, the Chinese Internet group that runs e-commerce site Alibaba.com, are close to an agreement that could happen as soon as Monday, according to a report in All Things D, citing unnamed sources.. Yahoo would sell one-half of its 40 percent stake back to Alibaba. ...

Before we watch Facebook be its public self at 11:00 a.m this morning, when its starts trading on the stock market, it's time to get caught up on what this all means. Last night the company priced its stock at $38 per share for a valuation of $104 billion -- the biggest pre-IPO valuation ever, of all time. But what do all those numbers mean for the rest of America? For the Internet? For the economy? For companies? For Facebook? For Facebook employees? For you? So many questions. Luckily, the Internet has been typing about this for days. ...

Twitter on Thursday took a stand for online privacy by backing a Firefox web browsing feature that lets people signal that they don't want their Internet activity tracked.

The United Nations and the Brazilian government are launching an Internet debate around 10 themes for a green planet to elicit suggestions from experts and the public for next month's Rio+20 summit.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Even as Facebook fever grips investors ahead of the social networking giant's potential $100 billion-plus initial public offering, its breakneck growth in Asia may be slowing as it moves beyond desktop users to those who access the Internet largely or solely from a mobile phone. In March, Facebook revised its own SEC filings to scale back its scope for further growth in India - its third-biggest user base and the largest population it currently has access to - China remains off-limits to Facebook. ...

Australian police warned Thursday that paedophiles were using Internet live-streaming sites to order "bespoke" child sex crimes for real-time viewing, from countries including the Philippines.

The Big Apple may not have California's weather, but tech fans at New York Internet Week say that in every other way the city is on course to become Silicon Valley 2.0.

All that hype for a 23-cent gain! Facebook's (FB) first day as a publicly traded company started with a bang and ended in a wimper.

Visiting French President François Hollande told President Barack Obama on Friday that France's combat troops would leave Afghanistan by year's end and pledged to find a way "for our allies to pursue their mission" in talks at a looming NATO summit. The two leaders also bonded [...]

But Nobody Saw How the Deadly Altercation Began.

The two sides of Mary Richardson Kennedy's grieving family faced off in court Friday over custody of her body, just hours before she was mourned at a wake at the estate where she committed suicide.

Hundreds of protesters broke away from a large rally and began marching through Chicago streets Friday, taunting police and shouting about everything from bank bailouts to nuclear power — a prelude to even bigger demonstrations expected after the start of a NATO summit.

President Barack Obama and leaders of other major industrial powers grappled Friday with options to solidify world resolve against development of an Iranian nuclear bomb and encourage a more forceful response to worsening violence in Syria.

The nation called Ed Ray a hero when he led a terrified group of children to safety after they were kidnapped aboard their school bus and held underground for ransom in the summer of 1976.

To hear his neighbors tell it, James Willie was just a regular guy who sometimes played with the neighborhood kids. Police describe him as a cold-blooded killer who stalked his victims on dark stretches of Mississippi's highways and shot two of them dead.

House Speaker John Boehner says "all options are on the table" in the ongoing congressional investigation into the "Fast and Furious" operation and whether the House would move to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt should he refuse to fully comply.

Faced with the prospect of losing both hands and her one remaining foot, a young Georgia woman battling to survive a case of flesh-eating bacteria that has already claimed one leg mouthed the words "Let's do this."

An Obama administration plan to cut the cost of space flights faces a key test on Saturday when a privately owned rocket lifts off for a practice run aimed at the first private docking at the International Space Station. Space Exploration Technologies' Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule are scheduled for launch at 4:55 a.m. EDT (0855 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Meteorologists expect good conditions for a launch, but if weather or technical problems force a delay, Falcon 9's next opportunity to fly would be on Tuesday. ...

Two young men were arrested Friday in the killings of two Chinese graduate students who were shot in an apparent robbery attempt last month near the University of Southern California, police said.

Warm, dry weather hindered hundreds of firefighters battling a blaze in northern Colorado that federal officials say started with a camp stove.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews who believe that the Internet threatens their way of life have rented the New York Mets' stadium for an unprecedented gathering on how to use modern technology in a religiously appropriate way.