The biggest looming IPO of the social media age will not take place as quickly as some have hoped. According to breaking news in the financial and social media sectors Wednesday afternoon, social networking giant Facebook is shelving its plans to go public until at least late 2012.
The reason? Sources reveal that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is looking at “next September or later in order to keep employees focused on product developments rather than a pay-out.”
The IPO of Facebook, a company valued as high as $66 billion, was expected to take place before April 2012, if not still this year. It now appears, however, that “late 2012” is the new tentative time-frame for the most anticipated IPO in recent memory.
“If you already circled a date for a Facebook IPO, get our your eraser,” CBS News reports. “Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to delay his company’s widely-anticipated initial public offering until later in 2012, sources told the Financial Times.”
Last spring, chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said a Facebook IPO was “inevitable,” adding that it would be “the next thing that happens.”
By late 2012, Facebook’s valuation could be in the realm of $100 billion.
To read the complete report from The Financial Times, which broke the story Wednesday, click here.
