The social-networking behemoth is planning as early as next week to file for an initial public offering worth up to $100 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources.
Morgan Stanley is expected to be lead underwriter with Goldman Sachs also likely to play a major role, the sources said. USA TODAY could not independently corroborate the story. The timing of such a filing could put Facebook on track to start trading stock as early as this spring.
The six-year-old Facebook is expected to raise $10 billion, with a valuation of between $75 billion and $100 billion, although such information would not be in the initial registration document. By either measure, it would make Facebook among the largest IPOs ever. (Visa set a record in 2008, when it raised $17.9 billion.)
"It makes Facebook the largest Internet IPO ever," says Kathleen Smith, a principal at IPO investment advisory firm Renaissance Capital.
Facebook declined to comment. "We're not going to participate in IPO-related speculation," Facebook spokesman Larry Yu said Friday.
Article Source: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-01-27/facebook-ipo-could-come-next-week/52823968/1
