Mark Zuckerberg Sued By Shareholders Over Facebook IPO

Mark Zuckerberg sued

Mark Zuckerberg has been sued by Facebook shareholders over the company's disastrous IPO.

Zuckerberg and a number of banks have been accused of not informing the wider public of worsening revenue forecasts.

The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan over a week ago, also names Facebook, Silicon Valley investors Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Barclays Capital as defendants. It states: "The true facts at the time of the IPO were that Facebook was then experiencing a severe and pronounced reduction in revenue growth due to an increase of users of its Facebook app or website through mobile devices rather than a traditional PC such that the company told the underwriter defendants to materially lower their revenue forecasts for 2012."

The "revisions were material information which was not shared with all Facebook investors, but rather, was selectively disclosed by defendants to certain preferred investors and omitted from the registration statement and/or prospectus," the plaintiffs claim.

In response to the legal action, a Facebook spokesperson said, "We believe the lawsuit is without merit and will defend ourselves vigorously."

Mark Zuckerberg became one of the richest people in the world at the age of 28 when Facebook started trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market last May 18. But the shares of his company was reportedly down 27 percent since going public.