The Upcoming Facebook IPO – What You Need To Know
Rumor on the street has it According to CNBC, that the face book IPO is likely to happen in the first quarter of next year. Without a doubt, Face book IPO will be a huge event, maybe even bigger than the Google IPO.
Expect a huge valuation, According to some stories in the Wall Street Journal and other Financial newspapers, analysts are talking about a $1 Billion initial valuation, possibly more.
April Rudin- CEO of Rudin Group said on Huffpo:
Ahead of filing its IPO, Facebook is feeling the pressure of its valuation. What are the underlying assets that Facebook has gathered? You can’t touch or see the assets. In this case, its “booty” is at least 650 million email addresses and a zillion other data points of personal information on likes, buying patterns, etc., all of which hold intellectual insight into the consumer’s mind. Since the Facebook public offering will mostly likely take place in the first quarter of 2012, there is still much time for lively conversation. Although this was expected, it was also speculated that Goldman Sachs had set-up a “special purpose vehicle” to keep Facebook under the 500 shareholder mark thereby avoiding the SEC “500 Rule.” Word on the street is that the value could top $100 billion. Can that be “real?” And, what does it mean for other social media sites going public?This Is an amazing amount, considering that only a handful of U.S. companies are valued as high, and most of them have been around for a century or so. Considering the bleak state of our economy, The Facebook IPO will be very highly anticipated. Money will be pouring into that stock And the valuation is likely to exceed $100 Million expect the top Wall Street bankers, hedge funds, and large investors to be stampeding for a piece of the Facebook IPO.
The Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has always been very guarded when the subject of taking Facebook public comes up, so why all of a sudden are they interested in going public now? Many believe it has to do with the SEC requirements for companies with 500 or more private investors to begin to disclose financial information. Facebook itself has said that they are on target to cross that mark By the end of the year. That means according to SEC regulation Facebook would have to start divulging financial information as early as April, 2012. Another reason Is that the employees of Facebook own many shares of very valuable stock that they would like to take profit on, since the company has stopped allowing private employee stock sales.
Can the Facebook IPO be the catalyst to turn the sinking ship once again? As the market slides again and starts to take out these resistance levels, investors are scrambling for strength and the Facebook IPO might just be what the doctor ordered, if they get the offering ready in time.
Look to see several other social IPOs following suit if Facebook’s is deemed successful by the market.
It remains to be seen what the Facebook stock symbol may be, but it’s likely to be easy to remember and easy to find, once it is released, as Facebook stock will be in very high demand.
Expect to see much more frequent news concerning the Facebook IPO towards the end of the year, and into the spring of next year, as possible IPO dates get closer.