Facebook IPO to come Wednesday – reports


30 Jan 2012

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg

Social networking giant Facebook is to issue its first public stock offering on Wednesday, valuing the company between $75bn and $100bn, reports suggest.

The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal report that Facebook plans to file papers with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on 1 February.

The flotation later this year would raise about $10bn, they reported, making it one of the biggest share sales seen on Wall Street.

Facebook, which has seen massive growth since launching seven years ago – the site now has more than 800m members worldwide – was expected to have passed the 500-shareholder mark by the end of 2011.

Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed in early November that the company was planning an IPO, but just hadn’t yet decided when.