Facebook must deal with class-action lawsuits over its IPO

If Facebook thinks the legal troubles with its initial public stock offering are over, it has another thing coming. A federal judge has ruled that the social network must face two class-action lawsuits accusing it of masking doubts about its growth before the IPO kicked off in 2012. Both of them claim that Facebook pulled a fast one, tricking investors into buying stock at high prices that ultimately lost them money.

For its part, Facebook is appealing the decision. It insists that the class-action status is "without merit" and goes against precedent. Whether or not that's true, it's clear that a lot of people are still seething over the lofty expectations for Facebook's IPO -- they assumed that they would get windfall profits on day one, and were shocked when that didn't happen.

[Image credit: Zef Nikolla/Facebook via Bloomberg]