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FACEBOOK HAS SET itself up for a potential valuation of up to $96 billion dollars when its shares finally go on public sale later this year.
A regulatory filing yesterday confirmed that the company would sell about 337.4 million shares in its initial public offering, with those shares valued at between $28 and $35 each.
Bloomberg notes that this valuation would mean the company would raise around $11.8 billion in its IPO – making it easily the most lucrative IPO in internet history.
Google, when it went public in 2004, raised $1.9 billion through the public sale of its shares; German firm T-Online International raised $2.8 billion when it floated in 2000.
Bloomberg’s compilations also note that the company would therefore be valued at 24 times the amount it took in in sales last year, a relatively high amount when compared to the likes of Google, whose value – currently $199 billion – is equivalent to five times its turnover.
Co-incidentally, the 24-times-sales radio also reflects the increase in the social network’s income in the last four years: its sales for 2011 were 24 times its sales for 2007.
The documentation shows the company’s founder and CEO, 27-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, could potentially become an instant billionaire (in cash terms) when the shares are launched.
Zuckerberg is selling 30.2 million shares – around 5.6 per cent of his total stake – which would bring in $1.05 billion if the shares sell at $35 each.
His remaining stash of 500-million-or-so shares (which include preference shares worth proportionally more than regular stock) would be worth up to $40 billion, cementing his status as one of the world’s foremost self-made billionaires.
Analysts had expected Facebook to aim for a total valuation of around $100 billion, but the slightly smaller valuation is unsurprising given how the company’s financial results for the first quarter suggested a deceleration in profits.
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Communism doesn’t work !
I saw on the TV that china are sending their workers to work in the mines in Zambia and in the forrests in Brazil that they own. This is a result of their work ethic of 7 days weeks with 10 to 12 hour days. As the work dries up in china I expect them to export more workers to Europe and wherever else they own. Our government have just agreed to grant more visas and set up a hub for the Chinese entry point to the EU. We ate selling our soul to the slave masters.
“as the work dries up in china”??? uneducated claptrap, only germany exports more than china and that will soon reverse, they are buying as much of africa,asia and south america as they can for 3 reasons, food production to feed their massive population, mineral aquisition to supply their massive industrial production demand and energy production as a commodity to sell to europe and north america, one such plan is the covering of deserts with solar panels, my brother works for a chinese shipping company, they build cities to produce specific items like solar panels or oil pumps, within the next 3 years they will over take the usa as the worlds leading economy, their major advantages is their work ethic and flexibility, as the work dries up in china indeed, also they are building casinos all over the world, in the last 5 years the chinese have built more casinos in asia than all casinos previously built in the rest of the world combined
Their work ethic is impressive, however life is absolutely worthless there. If China becomes the leading world power, which it will, in next 5 years, it will represent a massive threat to democracy and freedom and could lead to rights we have taken for granted being rolled back.
It’s the land of the indentured slave.
When the Chinese are the next super power we will wish we had the americans back. Their work ethic is a slavery work ethic – and its not communism its capitalism with Asian values. I saw the zambian workers, they said the Chinese are the worst to work for.
Ah no it only grew by 8%, how will they manage ! They should come back here for some lessons from Bertie.
Er, basically this is another sign that international capitalism is in meltdown and only communism can save the oppressed masses…er……
I take it dave from your comment you have never been to a communist country
I’m pretty sure Dave was taking the piss guys.
see what happens when you sell your kidneys for an Ipad!!!
I was watching an analyst on BBC earlier who stated that at this stage anything below 7% growth on China would basically be viewed as a recession by the markets… nice for some!
The analyst on c4 also suggested that at the worst case scenario if economic growth serioiusly stalls in China the party may choose the option of uniting the people against the threat of an outside enemy to stop the huge population turning on itself.
broken china in the 1 percents display cabinet , they wont be happy
8.1%????…..Christ we’d take a quarter of that!
so 8.1 % means the total size of the Chinese economy doubles every 9 years. Physically impossible. there isnt enough resources or markets in the world. Oil peaked in 2006 and Chinese export economy is impossible without oil at a reasonable price.
@revolting peasant ‘mineral acquisition’ is a very tame way to describe resource plunder and environmental destruction.
That’s what a visit from Enda can do.
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