Facebook puts off IPO until late 2012

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/2b842146-dec3-11e0-a228-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1XxCjKiPg

by bhartzer • 15 years ago

57 30 15 years ago

dmk232• 15 years ago

With all the diffusion of their shares in the secondary markets they are on the way to reach 500 private shareholder limit and be forced by SEC to make the same kind of disclosures as a public company.

If anything the IPO timing is probably affected by their ability to stay under this magic 500 number.

dmk232• 15 years ago

Spoke too soon, looks like they have already reached 500 according to the article.

In that case hard to see how much value would be in staying "private" given the same disclosures and the liquidity in the secondary markets.

nextparadigms• 15 years ago

That's because the reason they've been giving to the press "that they want to keep employees hungry" is not really the real reason. With the Google+ launch, they probably think that the market will undervalue them now if they make it public.

jpdoctor• 15 years ago

The IPO market is not good at the moment, so I suspect that the investors (mark too) are trying to maximize bang for the buck.

Maybe after Greece defaults and the EMU cleans up its act. 1+ year is not a bad guess for that to happen.

wavephorm• 15 years ago

Doesn't Facebook have several thousand employees by now? If all of them were given only stock options, and not actual shares, then I'd be pissed. Options are more volatile than normal shares. So if the company stays private indefinitely in a sinking market won't the value of those options drop precipitously?

suking• 15 years ago

They have some type of restricted stock unit to get around the 500 limit with employees. http://allthingsd.com/20110107/with-500-shareholder-concerns...

VladRussian2• 15 years ago

>So if the company stays private indefinitely in a sinking market won't the value of those options drop precipitously?

i guess, they'll give out even more options to keep morale afloat and to counter offers from other companies. Ultimately, 6 months (or whatever restricted period is) after the IPO will be very challenging time for the stock when all this pent up cashing out happens :)

dreamux• 15 years ago

Groupon probably damaged software IPO sentiment, and people want to see how Google+ will play out. Also, they don't really need the cash and waiting will allow them to build a consistent revenue history (which will probably be disclosed, along SEC rules of 500+ investors). They can wait this one out.

bhartzer• 15 years ago

You're right, now is probably not the optimal time for FB to do their IPO right now.

dredmorbius• 15 years ago

So, you're saying later might be a better time for FB to do their IPO right now?

andrewljohnson• 15 years ago

I think Google+ already played out, the same way Buzz did. It's now just an echo chamber filled with Google employees and my computer programmer friends. It was nice for about two days.

dhruval• 15 years ago

Google search trend data seems to agree with you...

http://www.google.com/trends?q=google+buzz%2C+google+plus...

But might just be the initial excitement dying down.

rorrr2• 15 years ago

Yeah, Google keeps making the same mistake by doing the closed invitation-only beta thing. My google plus is basically programmers and google employees posting shit from reddit and HN.

rdl• 15 years ago

Google+ fell prey to Orkut-failure-mode for me (endless numbers of random people adding me). It's sad, because I'd really like a long-form social blogging platform, maybe more serious than tumblr; basically a professional equivalent of LiveJournal, with group based access control.

ethank• 15 years ago

What kills Google+'s utility and might kill Facebook's stream is the lack of a way to keep track of my high-water mark of what I read through the stream, and always feeling the perception that the software is keeping things from me.

Whereas with Twitter, if I don't want to read something, I unfollow, but its fairly easy for me to track what I've read and know I'm reading all that I possibly can and want to.

Facebook adding subscriptions is interesting, now lets get a good desktop client and high-water-mark syncing between web, phone and desktop.

tick80• 15 years ago

Basically, it's like Twitter in the early days. Full of early adopters, some waiting for it to snowball, others making full use of it before the masses come in and potentially spoil it.

veyron• 15 years ago

We've all seen rumored revenue numbers, but is there any indication that facebook is actually turning a profit?

If facebook really wanted to boost public image, a whiff of real profit would be the trick.

jethroalias97• 15 years ago

It is profitable: http://www.google.com/search?q=is+facebook+profitable

Facebook puts off IPO until late 2012

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