Facebook: rumours that stock market listing to take place on May 18

Despite rumours that the social networks stock market listing could possibly be delayed, mid-May is once again being unofficially spoken about as a launch period.

Facebook’s stock market listing will be one of the biggest events on the bourse these coming weeks with it concluding the enormous 5 billion dollar fund raising which will value the company at 100 billion dollars.

The social network which counts 900 million members is a company highly desired by investors, with it hopefully avoiding many of the traps encountered by numerous young Internet start up’s that list on stock markets. Many freshly listed companies see their values tumble after an initial honeymoon period, sliding below their list price.


IPO expected between the 17 and 20th of May
Facebook’s management has been preparing for this for months, taking a cautious approach to the launch. Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s founder, would have surely preferred to keep the company in its current form but since they passed through the 500 shareholders mark the next logical step is to undergo an IPO.

Despite the rumours of the stock market listing being delayed until June, the Wall Street Journal has once again confirmed the date is fixed for the 18th of May (with it possibly moving a day or two), with TechCrunch recently indicating that the date had been set for the 17th of May. This means that Facebook’s roadshow (the investor’s presentation before the IPO) is imminent and should begin on the 7th of May.

The group’s latest financial results showed strong growth in the first quarter of 2012, with earnings reaching a billion dollars (+45% over a year ago) but a reduction in net earnings of 10% compared to a year ago, down to 205 million dollars due to additional spending.