The company may file for an IPO before the end of the year, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. The exact timing for the filing has not been determined, the person said.
$ 100 billion Facebook valuation would be twice as high as it was in January when the company announced a $ 1.5 billion from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and other donors. Facebook aims to capitalize on the strong demand for social networking IPOs, said Josef Schuster, founder of Chicago LLC IPOX Schuster.
"It's obviously a very steep valuation," said Schuster, whose firm invests in IPOs and oversees about $ 2.5 billion in assets. "They realize that their window of opportunity, and they want to do sooner rather than later. "
A $ 10 billion, the offer would raise more money than any other technology IPO, a sign investors expect Facebook to call for a piece of the enterprise social networking. The amount that would dwarf the previous record holder, Infineon Technologies AG, which generated 5.23 billion dollars in its debut in 1999. Agere Systems Inc. raised $ 4.14 billion in 2000, placing second.
Difficult to predict IPO Facebook is far enough away that the details may change, said Lise Buyer, the principal of the Class V Group, a consulting firm IPO.
"It's far too early to accurately predict where the evaluation will be the day to face," she said.
Facebook expects to be required by the U.S. authorities to release financial results April 30, 2012, if not made public until then, the company said in January. Facebook decided to wait until 2012 for its IPO to give CEO Mark Zuckerberg more time to gain users and boost sales, people familiar with the matter said last year.
Facebook, which claims more than 800 million users, is also increasing its target on mobile technology, to leverage change for smartphones and tablets. The company expects its next one billion users mainly coming from mobile devices rather than desktop computers. Jonathan Thaw, a spokesman for Palo Alto, California, Facebook, declined to comment on the IPO plans.
Google IPO
Google Inc., a leading rival Facebook in the market for Internet advertising, has raised $ 1.67 billion in its IPO in 2004. It is now estimated at 190.4 billion dollars.
Valuation of Facebook is currently set at $ 66.6 billion by SharesPost Inc., which manages the exchange of private companies. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier yesterday that Facebook is considering the IPO of $ 10 billion with a value of over $ 100 billion. The company aims to make public between April and June, the Journal said.
The demand for technology IPO relaunched in November after a lull in summer, paving the way for Groupon Inc. and the list of Angie Inc. made public. Groupon, the largest provider of online coupons, has lost 24 percent of its value since its inception to $ 20 earlier this month.
Groupon decline is perhaps stimulate other companies to pursue IPOs before they lose the chance, said Schuster.
