New reports surfaced Monday that Facebook's initial public offering of stock,
widely expected to be the pre-eminent financial event in Silicon Valley this
year, could happen later this spring.
Citing anonymous sources, the All Things Digital blog of The Wall Street
Journal on Monday reported that Facebook's IPO is expected in the third week
of May, timing that would require the Menlo Park-based social networking
company to begin filing detailed financial information as soon as one month
from now.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has long resisted a public stock
offering in order to retain control of Facebook's development as long as
possible. But the company is bumping up against federal regulations that
require companies to disclose financial data within 120 days after the end of
the calendar year they surpass 500 outside investors -- giving Facebook an
April 30 deadline.
A late May IPO, therefore, "is not inconsistent with the fact that
Facebook has to provide financial disclosure in April," said Lou Kerner, a
social media analyst with Liquidnet. "So that's definitely added incentive for
them to provide financials through an S-1."
Following the filing of the S-1 disclosure form, Facebook would start a
review process with the Securities and Exchange Commission leading up to the
IPO. The All Things Digital
report on Monday noted that the timing of the start of public trading of
Facebook stock could change "in a New York minute" because of instability in
the financial markets or other factors.
A Facebook spokesman declined to comment Monday on the latest of many
reports that an IPO was drawing near, and there have been numerous reports in
recent weeks an IPO would happen sometime in the second quarter of 2012.
Some reports have suggested that Facebook could raise up to $10 billion
on a valuation as large as $100 billion. Still unknown is whether Facebook
will follow the lead of Google (GOOG), Zynga and other tech startups, and have
multiple classes of stock that provide Zuckerberg and other insiders with more
voting power within a public company.
"Facebook has rewritten the rules for social networking, and at this
point they could blaze whatever trail they'd like to," Kerner said, "just for
the scale they bring and for the demand there will be" for its stock.
