The Facebook IPO: What could you buy? (infographic)

15 May 2012

The IPO of social networking giant Facebook this week is expected to pad the wallets of quite a few people, from U2 frontman Bono to the company’s own employees.

Bono is one of the lead investors in Elevation Partners, a venture capital firm that spent more than €156m for a 1.5pc stake in Facebook.

An infographic published by Betterment on Visual.ly takes a look at just what you could splash out on if you own stock in the social network – items that come with a very hefty pricetag, to say the least. Homes, cars and college educations are among the more practical items funds from Facebook’s IPO could buy, along with performances by pop star Lady Gaga and stays on Virgin Media boss Sir Richard Branson’s private island, according to the infographic.

Facebook’s own co-founder, Brazilian-born Eduardo Saverin, will own 4pc of the company’s US$96bn stock when it goes public, bringing his wealth to about US$4bn. Saverin, who now lives in Singapore, even renounced his US citizenship in an effort to avoid paying US$600m in taxes.

Facebook hopes to raise US$5bn in its IPO and could be valued at US$104bn when it goes public, making it the largest stock market flotation by an internet company to date.

Facebook IPO

Tina Costanza was a journalist and sub-editor at Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com