For the past couple of days, Facebook has been shrugging off reports that the world's largest social networking site is seeing big traffic drops in the U.S., Canada, and a handful of other territories as it nears 700 million users. What you make of Facebook's traffic depends on which data source you choose to trust, but regardless of all that, Mark Zuckerberg and Co. have bigger things on their minds, much bigger things.
Citing "people familiar with the matter," CNBC says Facebook is likely to go public by the first quarter of 2012 at a valuation of more than $100 billion. If this happens, it would likely be bound by a section of the 1934 Securities and Exchange Act known as "the 500 rule," which states that when a private company has more than 500 investors, it must release quarterly financial information to the Security and Exchange Commission.
Facebook is on pace to have more than 500 investors this year, and for this reason the social networking site would likely launch a formal IPO ahead of when the 500 rule would apply, hence the reason for a first-quarter offering, CNBC says.
The closest Facebook as come to commenting on the impending IPO is when, last month, chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg called it "inevitable" and "the next thing that happens." When and if it does, Facebook would be the latest high-profile dot-com to demand a high-dollar IPO, following in the footsteps of Groupon and LinkedIn, the latter of which soared 170 percent on its first day of trading.
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hades_2100
June 15, 2011 at 6:22pm
Most of my (real-life) friends have cut down their usage. I myself check in about twice a year.
JohnP
June 14, 2011 at 2:47pm
And, of course, Facebook is on the slide down with users. In my extended family, no one uses Facebook much anymore. I have quit using it for a year now and don't miss it at all...
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