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Facebook IPO said to set value at $100bn

Find out in April. Or May. Or June – unless the eurozone implodes

Facebook is planning to go public sometime between April and June of next year in an IPO that would value the company at over $100bn.

So say The Wall Street Journal's ever-chatty "people familiar with the matter".

The same worthies told the WSJ that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hasn't yet finalized the IPO, that the date for a possible SEC filing hadn't yet been nailed down, but that the company had "crafted an internal prospectus" and is thus ready to pull the trigger when the time is right.

And it doesn't take the WSJ's pfwtm to guess what's holding up a final decision, what with the stomach-churning roller coaster that the US stock market is currently riding, coupled with the "We're all going to die!" fiscal terror that's roiling the eurozone these days.

If the planets align, however, the IPO – which the pfwtm say will be structured to generate $10bn in cash for Facebook – should set Facebook's value at comfortably over $100bn.

To put that figure in perspective, at the close of trading on Monday chip giant Intel was worth $115.6bn, Cisco was valued at $93.5bn, and HP's market valuation was a mere $51.2bn – and those three companies actually manufacture products.

But in a world in which a coupon peddler's IPO can set its value at around $15bn, a $100bn valuation for Facebook doesn't seem out of the question.

Insanely bubbly, possibly, but not unimaginable. ®

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