Facebook Inc., the world's largest social networking company, is planning to file its initial public offering as early as next week, according to reports. The most widely anticipated IPO is expected to raise about $10 billion, valuing the company between $75 billion and $100 billion, said the Wall Street Journal report on Friday.
The timing of the IPO has not been scheduled and may change as the discussions are still on, the reports said.
The WSJ, citing people familiar with the matter, said that Facebook is to engage Morgan Stanley to lead the IPO, while its rival Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will also "play a significant role" in the deal. The Facebook IPO was one which all Wall Street banks were tugging out for, as they would receive millions of dollars in proceeds and many new business from this major deal.
By raising $10 billion, Facebook's IPO would be the largest by any technology company. In 2004, Google were able to raise $1.9 billion valuing the search giant at $23 billion.
Last year, the U.S. market saw wave of IPOs from social-media internet companies. In May 2011, professional networking site Linkedln Corp. held an highly successful offering, and was followed by slew of internet companies, including Pandora Media Inc., Renren Inc. daily-deal site Groupon Inc., and Zillow Inc.
Facebook, which was co-founded by its CEO Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 in a dorm room at the Harvard University, currently has more than 800 million members around the globe, with about 500 million of them logging in every day. Facebook members can create their own profiles in the site; post their status (views), photos and videos; chat with friends, etc. The company expects to reach the magic number of 1 billion this year itself. The IPO will help Facebook to amass enough fund to keep up with its current expansion path.
Facebook had raised its first round of venture capital funding of $12.7 million from Accel Partners in May 2005, with other high profile investors such as Microsoft Corp., and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. following. Yahoo even offered up to $1 billion to buy Facebook in September 2006.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Business News
June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.