

Ask HN: Why should Facebook do an IPO? - blantonl

I'd like to solicit a discussion and pose this question to the HN community: Why should Facebook do an IPO?<p>Would it be to:<p>* Quickly/finally reward past investors?<p>* Raise capital to grow operationally? (do they need to?)<p>* Raise capital to acquire?<p>* Just because?<p>My understanding is that Facebook is profitable and generating huge amounts of revenue running on their current funding.<p>My position is that Facebook as a public company would be forced to deal with far more distractions than they ever have had to deal with.  I applaud the fact that Facebook <i>has not</i> gone public yet, so, why would they?  Why <i>should</i> they?
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noahth
As I understand it (which is to say, poorly), one of the more pressing reasons
is this: the SEC requires companies with 500 or more shareholders, whether or
not they are publicly traded, to publicly disclose financial information -
exactly what financial information, I'm not sure, but the types of things that
publicly traded companies are required to disclose. So, since they're going to
have to deal with the regulatory/disclosure stuff either way, it often follows
that they may as well take advantage of some of the benefits you listed
(rewarding investors & early employees, add'l cash, etc) by going public.

While googling to double-check myself on this, I discovered that the SEC is
considering raising the shareholder limit thanks to Facebook. And of course,
I'm sure FB is weighing this stuff very carefully. Personally I'm really
skeptical about the choices that might get made at Facebook out of concern for
their obligations to shareholders as a public company. I used to say that the
IPO would be the beginning of the end for them, but I'm not so sure anymore.
Last I remember, though, they were already close to the limit of 500 and may
be considering going public next year, so we might find out soon enough.

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jarcoal
I'm no expert, but I don't think they really need to. I feel that many
companies do it just because it's "what you're supposed to do".

Some credit should definitely be given to Zuck. He's not here for the money,
he's here for the thrill. Definitely a little Jobs in him.

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chc
I think that's overstating it a bit. I mean, he's already a billionaire, so
the thrill is really all he has left to seek.

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qq66
In high school, he refused to sell his company for $2 million...

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sa5
Eventually employees will want to cash out. Facebook has been giving out RSUs
for several years now and there's no easy way to liquidate RSUs without an
IPO.

