Facebook Planning a $100 Billion IPO?

Sources say Facebook is planning to do an IPO of its shares by early 2012. Valued at $100 billion, the social network will be among the top-valued tech firms, like Google, Microsoft and Apple.

Facebook is the poster-boy of social networking, having risen from relative obscurity and now far surpassing other social networks that came in earlier at the game. Facebook has long since staved off various monetization methods and even billion-dollar acquisition offers. But it seems that Mark Zuckerberg and company believe the time is ripe for Facebook to go public.

Currently valued at about $100 billion as per recent estimates, this would put Facebook in the leagues of the top tech firms. For instance, Google has a market capitalization of $162 billion. Microsoft is at $203 billion. Apple is at a whopping $300 billion.

What’s even more interesting is Facebook’s growth rate. Just earlier this year, the company was valued at $50 billion by Goldman Sachs and Digital Sky.

All this is a result of the SEC’s “500” person rule, in which firms with more than 500 investors are required to publish their financial statements regularly. It also seems a lot of Facebook employees are unable to cash in on their shares, as they could not trade these. With the upcoming IPO, Facebook is bound to make billionaires out of even more people in the tech industry.