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Facebook Inc
Facebook’s (FB) share price, by publication time, had dropped about 25 percent from its original IPO price of $38. While this is painful news for Facebook investors, it is good news for the patrons of the Bull & Bear Steakhouse in New York’s Waldorf-Astoria hotel. The bar, which is decked out with its own stock ticker, is offering a special discount on cocktails, all summer long, tied to Facebook stock’s daily performance.
The discount requires a minimum 1 percent drop in share price and is capped at 5 percent. For example, a 1.25 percent drop in stock that day means a $1.25 discount on cocktails that evening. The promotion applies to cocktails only, which cost an average $14 to $18. (Ironically, customers will need to “Like” the Bull & Bear Facebook page to get the discount. They can also follow Bull & Bear on Twitter.)
Matt Zolbe, director of sales and marketing at the hotel, says the promotion is a way to reach younger customers through social media. He says the idea came when one of the hotel’s banquet captains and a server were talking about Facebook and he learned that the captain had made arrangements to purchase stock, which Zolbe expected would drop. He wanted to take advantage of Facebook being a popular water cooler topic, especially among the bar’s finance-world clientele.
At 12:30 p.m. today, the share price was down about 5 percent since the market opened. “We don’t know what it will be when it closes, but it’s looking to be a good day,” Zolbe remarks.
And if the banquet captain wanted to drown his sorrows in discounted drinks? “He’s not encouraged to be one of our regular bar patrons,” says Zolbe.