Facebook may IPO next month

Rumors among Facebook employees are pointing to a possibility that the social networking giant will file for an initial public offering (IPO) as early as next month, revealing that talks within Facebook have geared up over the last six weeks.

According to a source close to Facebook employees, murmurings among Facebook employees unveiled that "a Facebook S1 filing is coming really soon...possibly as soon as next month". In an e-mail to Business Insider on Friday, the source said IPO talks within Facebook had "ramped up" over the past six weeks and that founder Mark Zuckerberg repeatedly said it was "coming". The source stressed that Zuckerberg had "never" said that in the history of Facebook.

However, another source close to the IPO process also told Business Insider that Facebook had not decided which banks would underwrite the offering, a step essential before an S-1 is written and published.

In January this year, when Facebook and Goldman Sachs made a deal to raise US$500 million, the social networking giant issued a media statement noting that it "expects to pass 500 shareholders at some point in 2011, and therefore, expects to start filing public financial reports no later than Apr. 30, 2012".

Facebook was worth US$15 billion in 2007 but its value had since skyrocketed. In 2009, a Russian investor poured US$100 million into the social network at a US$10 billion valuation. Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs invested in Facebook at a US$50 billion valuation.