Can you guess the third largest country by population? No, not America, not Europe either. It?s the ?republic of Facebook?! With 500 million members (a quarter of the world?s Internet users) and counting, the social-networking site has grown by more than three times its size since the beginning of 2009. And Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook?s CEO, expects membership to rise to a billion in the next couple of years! But for all its work in connecting people and fostering a ?global village?, Facebook is still hesitant to open its doors to public scrutiny through listing itself in the markets.

Although Facebook was slotted for an IPO in 2011, there are now new reports putting the date off to 2012. This seems to have turned into a pattern for the company, with new reports every so

often on its delayed IPO plans. Given the ever-changing landscape of Zuckerberg?s mind, how likely is it that the IPO would happen? The company may certainly benefit from another year or two of growth without the added scrutiny from a public listing.

Regardless of the date, Facebook has seen its valuation numbers grow from $15 billion (calculated from Microsoft?s purchase of

a 1.6% stake for $240 million) in 2007 to $33.7 billion?an implied valuation greater than the

market caps of eBay and Yahoo!. With Wall Street rife with speculation and raring to buy, the company has the opportunity to ride this surf of positive opinion, using it to generate funds through public listing.

However, there are some serious reservations about going public. As a private entity, companies are relatively less concerned with the transparency and compliance that come with the territory of going public. Another concern is answerability to investors. But the biggest concern, also a source of much debate in the international press, is Facebook?s privacy guidelines. The site has been accused time and again of ?mining? users? private information to generate revenue in advertisement sales (which already account for 41% of market share). So until the ?republic? decides to stick to conventional wisdom, or carves out new parameters for defining a public company, its IPO will likely remain in the offing.

feedit@expressindia.com