My understanding is that the information was not withheld from retail investors; rather, it wasn't actively disseminated to them, and the significance of the information impressed upon them.
The reduced revenue estimates were public information; I recall reading about them myself before the IPO took place. If someone had put me in charge of billions of dollars and told me to take a position on the Facebook IPO, I would have shorted the stock, as many others did.
The crux of the issue is that wealthy institutional investors had analysts at their disposal to point out the revised revenue estimates, and retail investors like Swaminathan didn't. Retail investors were ill-prepared for the IPO, and they got burned.
The reduced revenue estimates were public information; I recall reading about them myself before the IPO took place. If someone had put me in charge of billions of dollars and told me to take a position on the Facebook IPO, I would have shorted the stock, as many others did.
The crux of the issue is that wealthy institutional investors had analysts at their disposal to point out the revised revenue estimates, and retail investors like Swaminathan didn't. Retail investors were ill-prepared for the IPO, and they got burned.