April 17, 2009
Posted by Ryan Graves
Facebook cashing in: IPO looming
image via aknacer
“We will be looking for someone with public company experience who can help take (Facebook) to the next stage in our growth.” – Mark Zuckerberg, an internal FB email
I just finished reading Kara Swishers post on AllThingsD (from 2 weeks ago) about Zuckerbergs announcement that Gideon Yu’s departure, their now ex-CFO. I don’t think it takes any stroke of genius to realize that FB is planning to go public. I’m not sure of the terms or the relationship between Yu and Zu(ckerberg) but as FB continues to turn down HUGE acquisition offers it’s obvious that Yu’s departure had to do with his experience, and going public is in FB’s near future.
Investors and some employees have dumped roughly $455 million in to the company, according to VCExperts.com Inc., not to mention Microsofts contribution to the party at a valuation of $15 billion. Eventually investors will force this exit event to occur. As the IPO markets starts to turn upwards from the bottom, as Fred Wilson claims, and as FB’s 1Q financials surprised them positively I’d argue that as soon as they find a new Chief of Finance the clock to an IPO starts clicking. I think this stop watch is set at about 2-3 months.
I also have a hunch (not based on to many facts) that if they really made $300 million last year and expect to reach near half a billion this year, that the public perception of FB is more valuable than a individual entities perception of their value. Basically, I think that they would have a higher value to the “market” than they would to a larger entity looking to acquire, ie. General Atlantic or Google. I should disclaim that I am not at all an expert in corporate valuations and would love to hear why my thoughts/logic is off base.
So, Facebook IPO in 2009?
