Facebook IPO Reportedly Coming in Spring 2012
When the initial public offering (IPO) for the widely popular social networking site Facebook will become available has been a source of widespread speculation for quite some time. Now, however, a new report by The Wall Street Journal suggests that the wait may be over soon.
In Monday’s report, the Wall Street Journal offered some insight into Facebook’s IPO plan saying that the company is currently in talks with the Securities and Exchange Commission and it appears that the offering will come in the second quarter of 2012.
The report also suggested that the company is “targeting a time frame of April 2012 to June 2012” for its IPO and could seek to raise as much as $10 billion, which would make the value of the company rise to more than $100 billion.
Facebook boasts of having more than 800 million users and companies typically explore the option of IPO once they have $100 million in revenue.
Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been reluctant in the past to make the company public, but in an interview earlier this month he said that the most widely used social networking site was indeed planning an IPO, but did not specify when.
Although Facebook has yet to disclose the stakes of its financial information, reports suggest that Zuckerberg owns 24 percent of the company.
Mr. Zuckerberg started Facebook in 2004 and the story of how Facebook came to fruition was documented in the 2010 Hollywood film, The Social Network.
Although it appears as though the company is leaning closer to an IPO than ever before, the Wall Street Journal report maintains that the decision remains in the air and a final verdict has not been made.
When the IPO does eventually take place, it is expected to garner widespread interest from investors and it could turn out to be one of the largest initial public offerings in history.