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By Hayley Tsukayama Facebook is set to begin trading today on the Nasdaq index. The social network company is ringing the opening bell remotely from its headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. Priced at $38 per share, the initial public offering is $104 billion, the third-largest in U.S. history. Here are five things to know about Facebook’s IPO:

The advocates are celebrating decisions by several major food and beverage companies to sever financial ties with the organization, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, McDonald’s, Kraft Foods and Wendy’s have cut their support for the group, although all played down any connection to the Florida shooting.

As a result of the national outcry against “lean finely textured beef,” Safeway, America’s second largest supermarket chain, has announced that it will no longer sell what the public has come to call “pink slime,” ABC News reports.

By Jena McGregor

(MIKE SEGAR - REUTERS) Talk about Big Brother. Employers now aren’t just limiting what their workers can and can’t say about them on social media sites. Some are actually asking for their Facebook passwords.

NEW YORK — Small businesses from coffee shops to plumbers will soon be able to accept credit cards through PayPal, using a small triangular card reader attached to a smartphone.

PayPal unveiled a mobile payments service Thursday targeting merchants that don’t already have full-fledged payments systems in place.

Called PayPal Here, the service will let customers pay using credit cards, PayPal accounts or, in the U.S., checks. They won’t need a PayPal account to pay by credit card or check. It rivals existing mobile payment services such as Square.

NEW YORK — Customers have been leaving T-Mobile USA, the country’s No. 4 cellphone company, for the last two years. Now that all three of the bigger carriers have the iPhone, that stream has turned into a flood.

Gatewood greets a young aspiring entrepreneur and his mom at a Marketing Pulpit LIVE event.

"Water, water everywhere and not a bit to drink" is an old saying that symbolizes impractical abundance. This is often the perceived predicament of many of our youths when they graduate from high school or college. Many of our youths have not been adequately exposed to entrepreneurship as a career and lifestyle choice. Accordingly, when they are cast into a society with skills that are not aligned with the realities of a thriving economy, they often find themselve adrift in a sea of abundance.

By Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy grew at a 2.8 percent annual rate in the final three months of last year, the fastest growth in 2011.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The tech industry is abuzz about SOPA and PIPA, a pair of anti-piracy bills. Here's why they're controversial, and how they would change the digital landscape if they became law. What is SOPA? SOPA is an acronym for the Stop Online Piracy Act. It's a proposed bill that aims to crack down on copyright infringement by restricting access to sites that host or facilitate the trading of pirated content.

From Wikipedia

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), also known as House Bill 3261 or H.R. 3261, is a bill that was introduced in the United States House of Representatives on October 26, 2011, by House Judiciary Committee Chair Representative Lamar S. Smith (R-TX) and a bipartisan group of 12 initial co-sponsors. The bill, if made law, would expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods.[2] Presented to the House Judiciary Committee, it builds on the similar PRO-IP Act of 2008 and the corresponding Senate bill, the PROTECT IP Act.[3]