Facebook "will probably" put off until 2012 the IPO it hasn't even acknowledged thinking about much yet, three people tell Bloomberg News. That adds about a year to the latest idle speculation of when Facebook might let its 500 million members (or anyone) become owners as well.
Assuming Mark Zuckerberg is still in a position to make such a call, the extra year will give Facebook time to allow time to heal some wounds that would not bear up as well under current scrutiny, Bloomberg quotes their sources as having reasoned.
Don't get us wrong: a Facebook IPO is, if not an inevitability, certainly a very obvious way for the company to unlock value of a company with an imputed value of about $25 billion, according to SharesPost. And there truly are some, shall we say, pesky distractions right now: The privacy saga that won't seem to die, and a bizarre lawsuit in which plaintiff Paul Ceglia contends he owns 84 percent of the company based on a $2,000 word-for-hire deal he made with Harvard student Zuckerberg back in 2003.
IPO offering statements are congenitally pessimistic, making note of every possible thing short of an act of God that could possibly go wrong. So, it would be great if these two particular bullet points were a thing of the past.
But, we've heard this all before, a history CNET neatly compiles. Back in January Zuckerberg even allowed that he doesn't "think about going public … much." Remember also that investors in the highly illiquid and non-transparent market that are shares in non-public companies can exert unusual influence on the process -- including maybe getting it reported somehow that something that aligns with their interests is going to happen and something that isn't will not.
Which is no knock to Bloomberg. Just take stories like this with an enormous grain of salt. Mea Culpa for my part.
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See Also:
- Facebook's Gone Rogue; It's Time for an Open Alternative ...
- Report: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Doesn't Believe In Privacy ...
- Today Facebook, Tomorrow the World
- Open Facebook Alternatives Gain Momentum, $115K
- Facebook Gets Russian Cash Infusion Valuing Company At $10 Billion ...
- Breaking: Microsoft Takes $240 Million Stake in Facebook ...
- Zuckerberg: No Date in Mind for Facebook IPO
