When and if Facebook decides to sell its stock shares to the public, the value of the social networking company could be pretty massive. CNBC reports via unnamed sources, that the company founded by Mark Zuckerberg could launch its public stock offering in the first quarter of 2012. If that happens the report claims that the value of Facebook could go over $100 billion. That"s a massive number for a company that launched about just 8 1/2 years ago.
While there have been lots of hints that Facebook would file for an IPO, today"s report says that part of the reason might be that by law a private company much disclose its financial info if it gets over 500 investors. The CNBC report says that Facebook could reach that number by the end of the year. Furthermore, the report states that Facebook is facing pressure from its employees who currently are not allowed to sell its shares of Facebook to the secondary market.
People have been waiting for Facebook to make its public stock offering for some time as number of related companies have either filed for their IPO or actually launched. The business-oriented social netwoking web site LinkedIn launched its IPO a few weeks ago and its value was estimated at "just" $4 billion at the time. Facebook-based game developer and publisher Zynga is also close to filing for its own IPO launch, according to reports. Zynga"s worth could be $10 billion or more when it makes its IPO filing decision.