Facebook hopes to raise $10 billion in an initial public offering that would value the social networking site at $100 billion, according to multiple reports Monday. But unnamed sources cited by different financial publications disagreed as to whether Facebook's IPO would happen in December or as far away as the second quarter of 2012.
The company is "inching closer" to an IPO sometime between April and June, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing "people familiar with the matter."
But Bloomberg, citing its own anonymous source, reported that "Facebook may file for an IPO before the end of the year," though "[e]xact timing for the filing hasn't been determined."
Last week, Business Insider reported that "[a] source close to Facebook employees emailed us yesterday to say that the rumor flitting from employee to employee is that 'a Facebook S1 filing is coming really soon. Possibly as soon as next month.'"
PCMag also learned from a well-placed source that it's been known "for months" that the social networking's initial public offering would be happening "soon," though the source wouldn't confirm a December date.
The reported $10 billion offering would be a record for a tech company IPO, according to Bloomberg—nearly twice the amount generated by Infineon, which raised a record $5.23 billion in its first public offering in 1999. The $100 billion valuation would be a considerable upgrade on Facebook's current valuation, $66.6 billion, according to SharesPost.
One reason for all the IPO talk heating up for Facebook is that several other so-called Web 2.0 companies have gone public in recent months, leading to speculation that the biggest domino yet to fall in that trending cycle must be preparing for its own offering in the near future as well.
In an appearance on the Charlie Rose Show earlier this month, Zuckerberg played his cards very close to the vest, saying only that Facebook would go public "when it makes sense," and that "[i]t's honestly not something I spend time thinking about on a day-to-day basis." But the Facebook founder did say that the purpose an IPO would be to be able to give back to those who invested in the company and helped it grow with their engineering talent.
"One of the ways you do that is to compensate people with equity and options," Zuckerberg told Rose.