Facebook Inc., preparing for a potential
initial public offering, plans to hire thousands of employees in the
next year and add an engineering office in New York to lure technical
talent.
Facebook
is looking to woo talent as bigger companies such as Google Inc. and
Apple Inc. compete for the brightest minds. Earlier this month, Chief
Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg visited Harvard University and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology to recruit potential engineers.
Facebook is considering raising about $10 billion in an initial public offering that would value the company at more than $100 billion, a person with knowledge of the matter said this week. The Palo Alto, California-based company may file for the IPO before the end of the year, said the person.
Web startups including Foursquare Labs Inc. and Tumblr Inc. are based in New York.
Facebook currently has about 100 employees in the city, including in marketing and recruiting, Mike Schroepfer, vice president of engineering at Facebook, said at the event. Facebook will begin accepting applications for jobs in New York immediately, according to a statement.
“New York has a strong history of innovation and is home to thousands of talented technical people, and we want them to help us solve the challenges of designing and building the next generation of Facebook,” Schroepfer said in the statement.
Serkan Piantino, an engineering manager for teams that handle Facebook chat and messages, will lead the new office, the company said.
Facebook Inc. is considering raising about $10 billion in an initial public offering that would value the world’s largest social-networking site at more than $100 billion, a person with knowledge of the matter said. The company may file for the IPO before the end of the year, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. Exact timing for the filing hasn’t been determined, the person said.
Facebook’s $100 billion valuation would be twice as high as it
was in January, when the company announced a $1.5 billion investment
from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and other backers. Facebook aims to
capitalize on strong demand for social- networking IPOs, said Josef
Schuster, founder of Chicago-based IPOX Schuster LLC.
“It’s obviously a very steep valuation,” said Schuster, whose firm invests in IPOs and oversees about $2.5 billion in assets. “They are realizing their window of opportunity, and they want to do it sooner rather than later.”
At $10 billion, the offering would raise more money than any other technology IPO, a sign Facebook expects investors to clamor for a piece of the social-networking company. The amount would dwarf that of the previous record holder, Infineon Technologies AG, which generated $5.23 billion in its 1999 debut. Agere Systems Inc. raised $4.14 billion in 2000, putting it second. Facebook's
world-wide ad revenue is expected to hit $3.8 billion this year, up
from $1.86 billion a year earlier, according to data compiled by
eMarketer.
Facebook’s IPO is far enough away that the details may change, said Lise Buyer, principal of the Class V Group, an IPO advisory firm.
“It’s far too early to accurately predict where the valuation will be on deal day,” she said.
Facebook expects to be required by U.S. regulators to disclose financial results by April 30, 2012, if it doesn’t go public by then, the company said in January. Facebook decided to wait until 2012 for its IPO to give Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg more time to gain users and boost sales, people familiar with the matter said last year.
Facebook, which boasts more than 800 million users, also is increasing its focus on mobile technology, aiming to take advantage of the shift to smartphones and tablets. The company expects its next 1 billion users to come mainly from mobile devices, rather than desktop computers.
Jonathan Thaw, a spokesman for Palo Alto, California-based Facebook, declined to comment on the IPO plans.
Google Inc ., one of Facebook’s chief rivals in the Internet advertising market, raised $1.67 billion in its IPO in 2004. It is now valued at $190.4 billion.
Facebook’s valuation is currently pegged at $66.6 billion by SharesPost Inc., which handles trading of privately held companies. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier yesterday that Facebook was considering the $10 billion IPO with a valuation of more than $100 billion. The company aims to go public between April and June, the Journal said.
Demand for technology IPOs reignited in November after a summer lull, setting the stage for Groupon Inc. and Angie’s List Inc. to go public. Groupon, the largest provider of online coupons, has lost 24 percent of its value since its debut at $20 earlier this month.
Groupon’s decline may be spurring other companies to pursue IPOs before they lose the chance, Schuster said.
“Groupon has lost a lot of steam and I believe bankers are saying, ‘The market is still hot so let’s do it right now,’” he said.
The world’s largest social-networking company, with about 3,000
workers and more than 800 million users, will open the Facebook NYC
engineering office in early 2012, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl
Sandberg said at an event. The “user base and revenue are growing very rapidly,” Sandberg said. “And that’s what we’re betting on.”
Facebook is considering raising about $10 billion in an initial public offering that would value the company at more than $100 billion, a person with knowledge of the matter said this week. The Palo Alto, California-based company may file for the IPO before the end of the year, said the person.
Web startups including Foursquare Labs Inc. and Tumblr Inc. are based in New York.
Facebook currently has about 100 employees in the city, including in marketing and recruiting, Mike Schroepfer, vice president of engineering at Facebook, said at the event. Facebook will begin accepting applications for jobs in New York immediately, according to a statement.
“New York has a strong history of innovation and is home to thousands of talented technical people, and we want them to help us solve the challenges of designing and building the next generation of Facebook,” Schroepfer said in the statement.
Serkan Piantino, an engineering manager for teams that handle Facebook chat and messages, will lead the new office, the company said.
Facebook Inc. is considering raising about $10 billion in an initial public offering that would value the world’s largest social-networking site at more than $100 billion, a person with knowledge of the matter said. The company may file for the IPO before the end of the year, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. Exact timing for the filing hasn’t been determined, the person said.
“It’s obviously a very steep valuation,” said Schuster, whose firm invests in IPOs and oversees about $2.5 billion in assets. “They are realizing their window of opportunity, and they want to do it sooner rather than later.”
At $10 billion, the offering would raise more money than any other technology IPO, a sign Facebook expects investors to clamor for a piece of the social-networking company. The amount would dwarf that of the previous record holder, Infineon Technologies AG, which generated $5.23 billion in its 1999 debut. Agere Systems Inc. raised $4.14 billion in 2000, putting it second.
Facebook’s IPO is far enough away that the details may change, said Lise Buyer, principal of the Class V Group, an IPO advisory firm.
“It’s far too early to accurately predict where the valuation will be on deal day,” she said.
Facebook expects to be required by U.S. regulators to disclose financial results by April 30, 2012, if it doesn’t go public by then, the company said in January. Facebook decided to wait until 2012 for its IPO to give Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg more time to gain users and boost sales, people familiar with the matter said last year.
Facebook, which boasts more than 800 million users, also is increasing its focus on mobile technology, aiming to take advantage of the shift to smartphones and tablets. The company expects its next 1 billion users to come mainly from mobile devices, rather than desktop computers.
Jonathan Thaw, a spokesman for Palo Alto, California-based Facebook, declined to comment on the IPO plans.
Google Inc ., one of Facebook’s chief rivals in the Internet advertising market, raised $1.67 billion in its IPO in 2004. It is now valued at $190.4 billion.
Facebook’s valuation is currently pegged at $66.6 billion by SharesPost Inc., which handles trading of privately held companies. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier yesterday that Facebook was considering the $10 billion IPO with a valuation of more than $100 billion. The company aims to go public between April and June, the Journal said.
Demand for technology IPOs reignited in November after a summer lull, setting the stage for Groupon Inc. and Angie’s List Inc. to go public. Groupon, the largest provider of online coupons, has lost 24 percent of its value since its debut at $20 earlier this month.
Groupon’s decline may be spurring other companies to pursue IPOs before they lose the chance, Schuster said.
“Groupon has lost a lot of steam and I believe bankers are saying, ‘The market is still hot so let’s do it right now,’” he said.
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