After arriving from rival Google in 2008, Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s second-in-command has helped grow its 70 million user base into over 750 million active “friends” today, representing about 11% of the world’s population. The Harvard MBA served as chief of staff for the U.S. Treasury Department under President Bill Clinton, and managed Google’s online global sales and operations as a vice president. One of few prominent women in tech, Sandberg has been vocal about empowering women. “We still haven’t achieved the goal of real equality for women in the workplace and men in the home,” she wrote in an August op-ed. “We can–we must–do better.”
“Larry Summers taught me early in my career, you want to work for the absolutely smartest people you can, and Mark Zuckerberg definitely falls to that category,” Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO tells Forbes. “People like Mark come around once in a decade, once in a generation, who have such a strong view of where the world is going, or should be heading and then the tenacity and the determination to actually create that world.”
About time too. Facebook is on the point of filing papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in preparation for its long-awaited initial public offering. This is both big news and no news at all.
It’s big news because, as a friend who works on Wall Street tweeted yesterday, a Facebook initial public offering (IPO) is to Wall Street what a pony is to a little girl. So excited is the financial world about what the Wall Street Journal calls the “Big Kahuna of stock listings“, that the NYSE and the Nasdaq are fighting like rabid dogs to host the listing. To keep people guessing, Facebook has reserved the ticker symbol $FB on both exchanges.
Meanwhile Facebook’s IPO is no news at all because, well, we’ve all been talking about it for years. In fact Facebook has been around for so damn long – and is so damn high profile – that it’s almost a surprise to hear it’s still privately owned. The beyond-healthy secondary market for the company’s shares only adds to the illusion that it’s already a public company: private trading of Facebook stock on Sharespost.com currently values Zuckerberg’s empire at $84bn (£53bn). Some analysts – or at least enthusiastic bloggers – are predicting a valuation hitting $100bn when the company IPOs.
We’ll know for sure soon enough. We’ll also know how much money the company makes selling ads next to all of our embarrassing party photos and banal status updates. Spoiler alert: it’s a shedload..
But first Facebook has to enter its mandatory quiet period – where everyone closely involved in the company has to keep their collective mouth shut as potential investors, the media and regulators dig around in the company’s business and figure out if there’s anything important we should know before we buy shares. For recent Silicon Valley IPOs such as Groupon and Zynga the quiet period has been a tragedy wrapped inside a comedy. And not least because Valley CEOs don’t seem to understand the meaning of the word “quiet”.
When Zynga CEO Mark Pincus faced a roomful of investors in December – days before his company went public – he gleefully informed them that Zynga would likely double its number of paid subscribers. The announcement left financial commentators aghast – the prediction wasn’t in the company’s prospectus and is precisely the kind of thing that CEOs aren’t supposed to say during a quiet period. Still Pincus’s ballsy prediction did little to boost Zynga’s prospects – despite being a hugely profitable enterprise (those virtual goods quickly add up), the stock dropped 5% on its first day and has consistently traded below its $10 offer price. Or as Forbes put it when reporting those numbers: “Zynga IPO goes SplatVille“. The reason for the failure? Forbes suggested that the market simply wasn’t sure how long the world will continue to buy imaginary tractors to tend digital crops.
And then there’s Groupon: the discount group-buying site thing that originally priced at $20 at a share, enjoyed a day-one increase of 31% but is currently trading back down at $19.6. Like Zynga’s Pincus, Groupon’s CEO Andrew Mason is a renowned loudmouth. When, as often happens, critics took advantage of Groupon’s quiet period to write negative reviews of the company, Mason came up with a breathtakingly ham-fisted way of fighting back. He wrote a series of “private” memos to staff addressing the criticisms – memos which, wouldn’t you know it, ended up being leaked to the press. The SEC was, to put it mildly, unamused.
So, given the, uh, shaky track record of recent Valley IPOs, are we likely to see Facebook crash and burn? Or can we at least look forward to fireworks during the quiet period? Actually, probably not. For one thing, despite what you might have seen in that ridiculous movie, Mark Zuckerberg is no Mark Pincus or Andrew Mason. Even when not bound by a quiet period, Zuckerberg is notoriously tight-lipped in making statements about his company. Only very rarely, say when a mob armed with burning torches is marching towards his office over changes to Facebook’s privacy settings, does Zuckerberg force out a terse statement explaining himself. Hell, he probably can’t wait to be legally barred from speaking.
But even if Zuckerberg was mindful to respond to critics, it’s hard to know what’s left to respond to. Facebook has been more carefully scrutinised than a three-time presidential candidate. There have been dozens of books, tens of thousands of articles and all kinds of legal scrutiny over the years. The company’s scandals have all been covered and re-covered to the point where there’s barely anything left to know.
Finally, unlike Zynga or Groupon or most other high-profile tech IPOs, there’s not much chance of Facebook going out of fashion any time soon. We’ve been declaring Facebook “over” for many years now but it stubbornly refuses to become unpopular. Instead it has slowly become the de facto login for so many services that it’s hard to imagine life without it.
So, while Wall Street might be salivating over the events of the next few months, and while the few major shareholders who haven’t already cashed out are about to get very rich, for the rest of us there’s likely to be only one surprising thing about Facebook’s IPO. And that’s just how dull a $100bn flotation can be.
The Facebook IPO is upon us… Want to get in and acquire Facebook stock? Here’s the details of the Facebook IPO, which will be filed next week. Facebook — which will likely raise up to $10 billion in its offering – — is on track to be the largest Internet I.P.O. on record, besting Google’s $1.67 billion offering in 2004. “It’s inevitable,” said Sean Parker in an interview with DealBook’s Andrew Ross Sorkin on CNBC this week. “There’s a possibility that it will be the largest offering in history.” This IPO will make Mark Zuckerberg the richest man in the universe. Would you “like” Facebook stock? Via the WSJ:
Facebook Inc. could file papers for its initial public offering as early as next week, people familiar with the matter said, as anticipation mounts for what is likely to be one of the biggest debuts for a U.S. company.
The deal, seen as defining moment for the latest Web investing boom, could raise as much as $10 billion and value the social network between $75 billion to $100 billion, said people familiar with the matter. A valuation of $75 billion would be below earlier expectations.
The website, which in less than eight years has attracted more than 800 million members, has changed the way people across the globe communicate, from organizing political protests to sharing baby pictures.
he Internet giant is close to picking Morgan Stanley to lead the deal, these people said. Wall Street banks, many of them struggling amid a crimp in trading profits, have been jostling for a leading role in the deal, which could yield them tens of millions of dollars in banker fees, potential new business and bragging rights.
A nod for Morgan Stanley would mark a disappointment for rival Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which a year ago was viewed as having an edge to lead the deal. One person familiar with the matter said that while Morgan Stanley would likely land the coveted “lead-left” spot on an IPO financial filing, Goldman would also likely play a significant role.
Spokespeople for Facebook, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs declined to comment.
Facebook could file documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission as early as this coming Wednesday, said one person familiar with the matter. But that timing is just one scenario Facebook executives are considering, the person said. Executives are also considering filing a few weeks later, the person said.
People familiar with the matter have said the company is targeting an IPO sometime between April and June.
A $10 billion Facebook offering would rank fourth among IPOs for U.S. companies, behind Visa Inc., General Motors Co. and AT&T Wireless, according to Dealogic. It would rank Facebook as the biggest U.S. Internet offering ever, replacing Google Inc., which raised $1.9 billion in 2004 at a $23 billion valuation.
At a $100 billion valuation, Facebook would be worth about the same as McDonald’s Corp. and nearly half of Google.
Facebook’s revenue is driven by its advertising business, as big brands rush to the site to interact with consumers through display ads and fan pages. Facebook has been able to increase its world-wide advertising revenue from $738 million in 2009 to $3.8 billion in 2011, according to estimates from research firm eMarketer. It isn’t known if Facebook is profitable.
Facebook’s final valuation will be determined by a variety of factors, people familiar with the matter said, such as investor demand for social media, the IPO market and the health of the European economy.
The IPO will mint a new generation of Silicon Valley millionaires on the level not seen since Google’s offering. Some 3,000 people work at Facebook.
An IPO will also test the ability of Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, age 27, to manage a global company whose financial performance will be scrutinized every three months by investors. Mr. Zuckerberg started the company in 2004 out of his Harvard University dorm room. Overall, about 500 million users now log into the site daily, according to Facebook.
Mr. Zuckerberg had been reluctant to push forward with an IPO. People familiar with his thinking said he has been fearful of the damage an IPO could do to the company’s culture. He wants employees focused on making great products, not the stock price, they said.
But outside forces are partly pushing his hand. Facebook executives began to realize in 2010 that Facebook would have more than 500 shareholders by the end of 2011, which would trigger a regulatory requirement that Facebook start publicly reporting financial information.
Mr. Zuckerberg decided it made more sense for Facebook to go public and reap some financial benefit from an IPO, rather than stay private but have to release its financial information, said people familiar with his thinking.
Leading the Facebook sale would be a huge win for Morgan Stanley, which last year cemented its position as the top Internet stock underwriter by leading the IPOs of LinkedIn Corp., Groupon Inc., and Zynga Inc. The bank’s global tech banking team, led by Michael Grimes and Paul Chamberlain, is also based in Menlo Park.
As we reported previously in Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Luxury Vacation in Vietnam: “Mark Zuckerberg and his girlfriend Priscilla Chan spent Christmas Eve in the popular tourist destination Ha Long Bay, local official Trinh Dang Thanh says. The couple spent Christmas Day at an ecolodge in the northern mountain town of Sapa and rode a buffalo, said Le Phuc Thien, deputy manager at Topas Ecolodge.”
However, on the Topas Ecolodge Facebook page, the resort is being very shy. They wrote a status update and stated: “Thank you for your interest in regards to the stay of Mr. Zuckerberg and friends at Topas Ecolodge. For respecting the privacy of our guests, we are sorry for not being able to provide any news about their stay. This is also our criteria to offer a nice private relaxing vacation to our guests. We wish Mr. Zuckerberg and his friends an excellent and unforgettable vacation in Vietnam.”
Here’s more information on the luxury resort:
Topas Ecolodge is a responsible and sustainable lodge situated in the spectacular Sapa valley in the northern Vietnam. Topas Ecolodge has 25 separate bungalows laying around on a hill top each with a private balcony facing the valley. Topas Ecolodge is the perfect place for relaxing, trekking and mountain biking. Click here for a photo tour of the resort.
Vietnam doesn’t have Facebook, but they do have Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He’s vacationing in the communist country, where the social-networking site is blocked by local Communist authorities.
Zuckerberg and his girlfriend Priscilla Chan spent Christmas Eve in the popular tourist destination Ha Long Bay, local official Trinh Dang Thanh says. The couple spent Christmas Day at an ecolodge in the northern mountain town of Sapa and rode a buffalo, said Le Phuc Thien, deputy manager at Topas Ecolodge.
They were seen visiting the Hoa Lo Prison Museum, known as the ‘Hanoi Hilton’ where American prisoners of war were held during the Vietnam War. Also, Zuckerberg and an entourage of eight people hired the Phoenix cruise ship and left the mainland at around 11:30 p.m. to cruise Bo Nau and Sung Sot caves in Ha Long Bay. Zuck’s meals included:
Dinners:
Grilled Fillet With Coconut With Barbecue Sauce
Fried Tofu With Tomato Sauce
Fried Egg With Sapa Mushroom
Sapa trout carpaccio with shallot and lemon oil
Grilled pork and apple skewers with Sapa honey (Don’t touch that, Mark!)
Sapa mushroom risotto
Eggplant, tomato and onion gratin
Lunch:
Cucumber Salad
Fried Shrimp vegetable
Fried Channa Maculata Fish
Potato with Cheese
Desserts:
Baked pear and cinnamon crumble
Creme caramel
Gingerbread pudding
Rice pudding with Strawberry sauce
It’s official, the Facebook IPO is going to be huge — and will occur between April 2012 to June 2012. As the valuation could exceed $100 billion, the IPO will make Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg a kajillionaire. Here’s the WSJ for more:
The social networking firm is now targeting a time frame of April 2012 to June 2012 for an initial public offering, said people familiar with the matter. The company is exploring raising $10 billion in its IPO—what would be one of the largest offerings ever—in a deal that might assign Facebook a $100 billion valuation, a number greater than twice that of such stalwarts as Hewlett-Packard Co. and 3M Co. – read more at WSJ
Set to air tonight on PBS’s Charlie Rose, Facebook CEO discusses the influence of the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs. While is was reported that Apple and Facebook were battling, notoriously over Ping in the iTunes store, and deep Twitter integration with iOS5, the Zuck sets the record straight. There were no issues with Apple, Zuckerburg states. Instead, he says in the Charlie Rose show that Steve Jobs was a mentor to him — similar as Jobs was a mentor to Google’s Larry Page. Zuckerberg asked Steve how to best establish great teams to create killer products and how to be focused. The Facebook founder called Steve “Amazing… I had a lot of question for him.” Charlie Rose asked “Like what?”
Zuckerberg responds: “How to build a team around you, right, that’s focused on building as high quality and good things as you are. How to keep an organization focused, right, when I think the tendency for larger companies is to try to fray and go into all these different areas. Yeah, I mean a lot just on the aesthetics and kind of mission orientation of companies. I mean, Apple is a company that is so focused on just building products that — for their customers and their users. And — and that’s like — it’s such a deep part of their mission is build these beautiful products for their users. And I think we connected a lot on this level of, okay, Facebook has this mission that’s really more than just trying to build a company, right, that has a market cap or a value. It’s like we’re trying to do this thing in the world. And I don’t know, a lot of it I just think we connected on that level.”
Jobs and Zuckerberg also talked about “the aesthetics and kind of mission orientation of companies.” Zuckerberg also says he has respect for Apple because, like Facebook, it is out to build a company that will change the world rather than fatten the bottom line.
Tonight, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg will appear together in a rare joint interview on the PBS Show Charlie Rose tonight. Hosted, of course, by Charlie Rose, the show will discuss upcoming Facebook features, from the Timeline redesign to new privacy settings. The high profile joint interview of Zuckerberg and Sandberg will also dive into Facebook’s upcoming IPO — with Sandberg taking the lead as the “adult supervisor” of the hugely popular social network. After the recent Groupon IPO, Facebook feels the time is right to establish their company as solid business for prospective investors.
Prior to Facebook, Sandberg was Vice President of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google, where she built and managed the online sales channels for advertising and publishing and operations for consumer products worldwide. Here’s a preview from tonight’s Charlie Rose show:
Catch Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg tonight on PBS’s Charlie Rose, airing at 11pm in most time zones (but check your local listings).
Below, watch Zuckerberg and Sandberg appearing at AllThingsD’s D6 in 2008:
Tonight, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg will appear together in a rare joint interview on the PBS Show Charlie Rose tonight. Hosted, of course, by Charlie Rose, the show will discuss upcoming Facebook features, from the Timeline redesign to new privacy settings. The high profile joint interview of Zuckerberg and Sandberg will also dive into Facebook’s upcoming IPO — with Sandberg taking the lead as the “adult supervisor” of the hugely popular social network. After the recent Groupon IPO, Facebook feels the time is right to establish their company as solid business for perspective investors.
Prior to Facebook, Sandberg was Vice President of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google, where she built and managed the online sales channels for advertising and publishing and operations for consumer products worldwide.
Watch Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg tonight on PBS’s Charlie Rose, airing at 11pm in most time zones (but check your local listings)>
Below, watch Zuckerberg and Sandberg appearing at AllThingsD’s D6 in 2008:
