Facebook is moving closer to an initial public offering that would value the social networking giant at more than $100 billion, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, the Journal states that Facebook is looking to go public between April and June 2012 and expects to raise $10 billion. Although Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has publicly expressed his reluctance to take the company public, insiders say he is warming the idea, with Facebook currently in internal discussions over the timing of its Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Although Facebook could file as early as this month, sources caution that Zuckerberg still has not made a final decision.
Because Facebook will eclipse the 500-shareholder limit by the end of 2011, the company must make its financial information public by April of next year--SEC rules mandate that companies with more than 500 shareholders must publicly disclose its financial data. Although Facebook could publish its financial information without an IPO, board members and executives reportedly have acknowledged that scenario would leave the company at an extreme disadvantage, saddling it with the liabilities that come with going public while reaping none of the financial rewards.
Facebook declined to comment on the report. "We're not going to participate in speculation about an IPO," a Facebook spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal.
Facebook's worldwide advertising revenues are on pace to reach $3.8 billion this year, up from $1.86 billion in 2010, according to data compiled by eMarketer. Although Wall Street has hotly anticipated a Facebook IPO for several years, investors continue to debate the long-term viability of other web juggernauts. Daily deals platform Groupon, which floated an $805 million IPO earlier this month, has seen its shares drop 42 percent in the past five days, while shares of business networking site LinkedIn have fallen 36 percent since May 2011, although it remains 33 percent above its IPO.
Facebook now tops 800 million users worldwide, with more than 350 million users accessing the platform via mobile device each month. In September, Nielsen reported Facebook is now the most popular mobile app across all operating systems.
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