According to media reports, Facebook is expecting to set its IPO wheels in motion in the later half of next year, and not April 2012 as was widely believed.
Here are some key points of the whole business:
a] Valuation – Facebook’s valuation has been growing in leaps and bounds. The company was pegged at $50B in the beginning of this year; but that was a long time ago. Facebook’s current valuation is expected to hover around the $66.5B range.
b] Facebook has more cash than it can burn through at the moment – The $50B valuation you just read about? Part of it was the $1.5B Facebook raised in overseas offerings in January 2011, courtesy Digital Sky Technologies and Goldman Sachs. Here is the press release from the company, in case you want to take a look.
c] The IPO can be a moving goal – According to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, companies have to file financial statements with the SEC if its number of shareholders exceed 499. Facebook has to start filing public financial reports no later than April 30, 2012; which explains the magic date everybody had assumed for its IPO as well.
However, as per the same ACT, any such company, or Facebook, in this case, can continue to be a private entity even afterwards, so Zuckerberg is really in no rush to move heaven, earth, and Wall Street; especially when he has enough cash in hand, and no particularly adult supervision breathing down his neck, crying out for short term performance, or else.