Between the Lines
Larry Dignan, Sam Diaz, Andrew NuscaGoldman Sachs invests in Facebook: IPO increasingly likely
By Larry Dignan | January 3, 2011, 3:50am PST
Summary
Facebook has been coy about any initial public offering plans, but a $500 million investment from Goldman Sachs and a Russian investor means the company is likely to become publicly traded in the not-too-distant future.
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Larry Dignan
Biography
Larry Dignan
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.
For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.
Sam Diaz
Biography
Sam Diaz
Sam Diaz is a senior editor at ZDNet. He has been a technology and business blogger, reporter and editor at the Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News and Fresno Bee for more than 18 years. He's a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and a graduate of California State University, Fresno.
Andrew Nusca
Biography
Andrew Nusca
Associate Editor
Andrew J. Nusca is an associate editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet. As a journalist based in New York City, he has written for Popular Mechanics and Men's Vogue and his byline has appeared in New York magazine, The Huffington Post, New York Daily News, Editor & Publisher, New York Press and many others. He also writes The Editorialiste, a media criticism blog.
He is a New York University graduate and former news editor and columnist of the Washington Square News. He is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has been named "Howard Kurtz, Jr." by film critic John Lichman despite having no relation to him. A native of Philadelphia, he lives in New York with his fiancee and his cat, Spats.
Facebook has been coy about any initial public offering plans, but a $500 million investment from Goldman Sachs and a Russian investor means the company is likely to become publicly traded in the not-too-distant future.
The New York Times reports that the Goldman Sachs investment puts Facebook at a $50 billion valuation. Facebook is worth more than eBay, Yahoo and Time Warner (not to mention a bunch of other companies). And why not? Facebook has vast reach on the Internet and will be the No. 1 U.S. site at some point.
With the dough, Facebook in theory would never have to go public. It has the funding to hire, build data centers and compete with Google. However, we’ve seen this movie before. Google followed a similar path and there was so much transparency and scrutiny that the company had to go public. When your privately traded shares are as liquid and popular as publicly traded ones it’s about time to launch an IPO.
The other elephant in the room is that the Securities and Exchange Commission is poking around on the private market for Internet shares. That inquiry will likely include Facebook, Twitter and Zynga.
In many respects, Facebook is already public. The company might as well make it official.
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Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.
Disclosure
Larry Dignan
Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn̢۪t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.
Biography
Larry Dignan
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.
For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.
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a new internet buble comming?
that's no different than AOL in 1990's.
RE: Goldman Sachs invests in Facebook: IPO increasingly likely
@Linux Geek I have to say, I wonder the same thing sometimes.RE: Goldman Sachs invests in Facebook: IPO increasingly likely
Someone please explain to me why Facebook is worth $50 BILLION dollars to anyone? Yes it has a tremendous base of users, but I am already turned off by the advertising I see now. Add more advertising and I will leave. I am sure someone else will develop another "social" site that allows me to easily keep in touch with my friends.
RE: Goldman Sachs invests in Facebook: IPO increasingly likely
@fhirtz@...Try using your phone. Makes it much more personal.
RE: Goldman Sachs invests in Facebook: IPO increasingly likely
Mare spam from Russia coming to us all...
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Tuesday, 4 January 2011
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