As expected, Facebook announced yesterday that it would seek to raise $5 billion by floating part of the company, though it’s still to be confirmed which stock exchange the social network will use – the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq.
Facebook’s ‘initial public offering’ has been a long time coming, and will be smaller than many had expected in terms of the sum of money set to be raised. Of most interest to the wider world, of course, is the information included in the social network’s filing with the Securities And Exchange Commission about the company’s recent successes.
Among the stats are that Facebook’s net income in 2011 rose by 65% to $1 billion, based on revenues of $3.71 billion. Investment types seem to be impressed with those figures, the one billion in profits more than many assumed. Though some commentators mused that the SEC filing lacked any clear information on how the company plans to expand further in the coming years, especially once the recruitment of new users starts to flatten out.
That said, many of those investors eager for a slice of the world’s biggest social network probably don’t need to see such strategies before taking the plunge, so it doesn’t matter that Facebook founder and boss Mark Zuckerberg’s personal message spoke more of abstract missions rather than profit-based business objectives.
He wrote: “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. We think it’s important that everyone who invests in Facebook understands what this mission means to us, how we make decisions and why we do the things we do”.
Sections: Digital | Tags: Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, SEC
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