Facebook prepares for IPO

Trade

1 February 2012

According to a report in Bloomberg, social network Facebook is rumoured to be putting the finishing touches to a $5 billion initial public offering to be filed today, valuing the company at between $75-$100 billion. The floatation is set to be the largest in Silicon Valley history, beating out Google’s comparatively modest $1.9 billion in 2004.

Facebook’s IPO became a legal obligation last year after it secured the services of 500 investors, the maximum permitted under US law. A list of owners and investors published in the Guardian showed founder Mark Zuckerberg controls 24% of the company, with other notable investors including Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Bono, Napster founder Sean Parker and venture capitalist Peter Thiel – famous for his statement that "there’s absolutely no bubble in technology".

Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard in 2004 to focus on developing the social network, a story dramatised in the book The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal, later filmed as The Social Network by director David Fincher.

Facebook boasts 800 million users worldwide and employs over 2,000 people, including over 200 in its European headquarters in Dublin.