Despite the apparent longstanding reluctance of Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg to do so, it now appears that Facebook plans to go public in 2012.
On Friday, the Wall Street Journal covered what may be the “clearest sign yet” that one of the hottest companies in the tech space is preparing an IPO for next year.
The Palo Alto, California-based social networking giant is revealing new details about its structure and financial underpinnings in a new “100-page document sent to a select group of potential investors.”
According to the Wall Street Journal report, the document dishes on Facebook’s plan to increase its number of shareholders above 500 this year, “forcing the social-networking company to begin disclosing reams of financial information or go public by April 2012.”
The venerable financial publication notes that the number of investors is “crucial” because of the SEC’s longstanding rules governing private companies. “The rules require firms with 500 or more shareholders of record in a given type of stock to publicly disclose certain financial information,” the report reads. “The requirement is designed to protect investors from unduly risking their ”
Earlier this week it was announced that Facebook has just raised an additional $500 million from both Goldman Sachs and Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies. As a result, Facebook’s current valuation now stands at a staggering $50 billion. The New York Times subsequently reported that “the stake by Goldman Sachs, considered one of Wall Street’s savviest investors, signals the increasing might of Facebook, which has already been bearing down on giants like Google.”
To say that the investment world is eager for a Facebook IPO would be a grand understatement. Just the prospect of Facebook going public has already “spurred active trading” in shares of Facebook in secondary markets.
To read the full Wall Street Journal report, click here.
