Facebook To Go Public With $5B IPO

By Osagie Alonge

Who says having friends doesn’t come with benefits?
A few hours ago, the social network giants took a very bold step towards becoming a publicly traded company as it filed to sell shares on the stock market. Facebook is already on the verge of turning to the largest Internet Initial Public Offering (IPO) ever, kicking to the side Google’s IPO in 2004 and computer services company Netscape about a decade ago.
Facebook which as at January 2012 has more than 845 million users worldwide is seeking to raise $5B (N800B) according to registration fee calculations.
The Wall Street firms underwriting the I.P.O. are Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital and Allen & Company.
‘Facebook’s I.P.O. marks another stage of the Internet’s evolution. It’s so valuable, because it’s not just about content, it’s about our connections’, said Charlene Yi, founder of the Altimeter Group, a technology consulting firm.
In 2004, ‘Computer prodigy’ Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook (formerly known as TheFacebook) for Ivy League schools to keep the community intimate and in less than a year, the site registered its 100th user. It has in the last eight years grown into something much more bigger as the site now accommodates sales, advertising amongst other profitable entertainment-eqsue businesses.
Web information company Alexia ranks Facebook as number 2 on the list of top 500 hundred sites after search engine Google.