Facebook files their IPO

[travelin cat]

In its filing, Facebook, which has more than 845 million users worldwide, said it was seeking to raise $5 billion, according to a figure used to calculate the registration fee. The company will seek to have the ticker “FB” for its shares, but did not list an exchange.

[dealbook.nytimes.com...]

[TinkyWinky]

Zucker has worked that well... not sure I would want to invest in a company where the 28% shareholder (MZ) has 55% of the actual voting rights through a class B structure.

TW

[Tor]

Why not? They have done great so far! :)

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Facebook plans (according to their filing) to charge advertisers USD $120.00 PER USER for YOUR personal information. The high price is apparently part of the "like" effect in which when you click 'like' you are advertising to your group of family/friends on the advertisers behalf.

BEFORE the ipo - they were charging just $4.50, the level of exploitation will apparently increase dramatically to keep up with Wall st demand.

Facebook users are about to become billboards
In the first line of a 2,000 word letter from Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder announces the following: "Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected."

[finance.yahoo.com...]

Facebook didn't need the money so Mr Zuckerberg's comment is essentially false, the plan seems to stay in the limelight and be talked about a la 'look at me, look at me'. I'm now happy I closed my account a year ago, the absurd has become more so and my privacy (and that of my friends/family) is worth more to me than $120.

[graeme_p]

Zuckerberg is smart: he is cashing in while expectations are high. Just like the founder of MySpace who shafted Murdoch.

The last time I saw valuations this high was during the dotcom boom.

@Sqt_kickaxe, you misunderstood that. The IPO values the company at $120 per user: they need to charge advertisers enough to make a reasonable return on that - a profit of, say, $6 per user would do if it was growing (5% return).

The problem is that FB is a long way off from that level of profit. A historical PE of 100x. Looking at it another way, they need to make about 5 times the profit they did last year within the next few years to provide a better return than some fairly safe investments.

They do have room for growth, but that much?

[httpwebwitch]

Someone on the radio news said, Facebook is *obligated by law* to go public, something about having more than a certain number of shareholders. Heresay. Sounds plausible to me.

[Wlauzon]

If this follows nearly all of the recent social media IPO's, expect a big runup for a day or two, then a (more or less) 2-4 month decline in stock price by 30-40%.

We don't use Facebook, never liked it, and always considered Zuckerberg to be arrogant and unethical, and would not buy the stock.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

The only people getting rich are employees and CURRENT holders of stock. The fairytale period will end, the user base will face erosion as Facebook attempts to wrangle more ad dollars out of them and I see a myspace like decline. Remember, nobody thought myspace would be dethroned either.

Twitter is the preferred tool for stars and celebrities because it is maintenance free and simple to use, they're next to cash in.

[Strapworks]

Hype Hype Hype
The winners - People who already own a portion
The losers - Anyone that buys the stock
I agree with above, the stock will go sky high and drop like a rock soon after.
Social Media really is the future - use it to hype your company as quickly and profitably as possible before it falls flat and you move on to the next.
The next big college degree - "Social Media Directors"
SEO is Dead, Long Live Social Media! LOL, joke

[Petrogold]

Any would advise how to buy some IPO of FB. When and how easy ways & secured.

[uoftenwinny]

Is there need to be worried about IPO of FB or not?
So that there is no private information that it should protect.