If Facebook can convince Wall Street of this, it may be worth well more than $100 billion — just as Google wound up being worth well more than its initial $23 billion investment. Whatever the final Facebook IPO valuation, there will definitely be consequences for other companies, such as Twitter, looking to go public soon. The Facebook IPO will become the new standard for other Internet players trying to go public before the IPO window slams shut. If you’re a young Internet CEO — even if you’re directly competing with Zuckerberg — it might be worth it to wish for a big Facebook IPO this spring.
Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc., the world's largest social-networking service, chose Morgan Stanley to take the lead on its planned initial public offering, four people with knowledge of the matter said. Elliott Gotkine reports on Bloomberg Television's "Countdown" with Linzie Janis.
The company’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg isn’t the only company leader who would be thrust into the spotlight as a result of the IPO. Bloomberg News reports:
Facebook Inc.’s Sheryl Sandberg recently threw a fundraiser for President Obama, dining with Lady Gaga and the president himself. Last week, she was a highly visible co-chair of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
As Facebook prepares to raise $10 billion in the largest- ever technology initial public offering, Sandberg, the company’s chief operating officer, is about to be thrust even further into the limelight.
Since joining the company in 2008, she’s become the public face of the Menlo Park, California-based social media giant, forging ties with advertisers, policymakers and partners. With the IPO, likely to be heralded by a regulatory filing this week, Sandberg will be taking on a larger function helping senior management represent the company to a broadening investor base and to Wall Street analysts.
“She’s going to play a crucial role in everything that happens over the next few months,” said Matt Cohler, a special adviser to Facebook and general partner at Benchmark Capital in Menlo Park. “She is very deeply connected” in political and business circles, said Cohler, who served as a Facebook vice president from 2005 to 2008.
At 42, Sandberg serves as the outgoing and more seasoned foil to Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, a 27-year-old coder who sets the company’s strategy even as he shuns publicity. During a career that has spanned Google Inc., McKinsey & Co. and the U.S. Treasury Department, Sandberg has honed what friends, colleagues and former employees say is a penchant for brokering alliances, fostering loyalty and setting priorities.
More from The Washington Post:
The challenge of a Facebook IPO
FTC settlement gives Facebook leverage
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