Social network Facebook is poised to start its IPO roadshow as soon as Monday, according to sources of the Wall Street Journal. If the meetings with bankers go as planned, the company could IPO as soon as May 18.
Facebook declined to comment in an e-mail to VentureBeat.
Facebook filed to go public this past February. The Wall Street Journal notes that Facebook could sell as much as $10 billion in shares, valuing the social network at $100 billion — a more than remarkable number for a technology IPO that could make it the largest tech IPO in history. Recently, Facebook reached over 900 million monthly active users, with 60 percent of all Internet users in the U.S. and the UK on the social network.
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It is said that Zuckerberg will not attend all of the IPO roadshow meetings, but chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and a number of others will be making the rounds. As per usual, Facebook will price its shares the day before its actual IPO debut.
It was recently assumed that Facebook’s IPO would be delayed due to its purchase of photo-sharing application Instagram. VentureBeat reporter Jolie O’Dell also noted that tech stocks have been down and that May might not be the best time for a new addition to the public pack. The company was also recently involved in lawsuit ping-pong with Yahoo, suing and counter-suing over patents.
It seems despite it all, Zuckerberg is ready to plow forward with what will be one of the biggest tech IPOs ever. Though, as MSN Money notes, it won’t actually crack the top 10 IPOs in history (many of which do not include U.S. companies). It certainly will be a huge for American IPOs, however.
When Facebook does debut, it will do so under the stock ticker “FB” on the NASDAQ. The NASDAQ stock exchange houses other tech heavy weights including Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon.
