Facebook's IPO

By now almost everyone in the business world should be aware of the upcoming IPO of the social network giant called Facebook. Is this good ? bad? I think it's going to be interesting.

From my perspective, there has been a lot of attention towards this event in an unprecedented situation that has rarely be seen in another company. Just about a year ago LinkedIn filled for an IPO and according to several sources, the value of its stock has performed exactly as it was expected. Other companies have performed better or worse, but it is the giants like Google or Apple that were able to keep surpassing their corporate goals time over time, and it is in this matter where tension is high on the potential outcome of the offering of Facebook stock.

I'm going to put the financial goals and expectations to a side and I'm going to concentrate on what I think worries potential investors nowadays: what will Facebook's next move be? You see, when Google went public in 2004, they had already started to expand towards related areas in the internet market: they had figured Google Ads and began laying plans out for products that are normal to most of us today, like Google Chrome and Google Analytics; they also but youtube and the license for Google Earth. The bottom line is that Google had many doors open and many opportunities, and they took them.

So what is Facebook going to do? They can't buy youtube, it's already taken. They can't create Google Ads or Analytics, or Facebook LinkedIn and so on: they are pretty much on their own. Since they are now going to be a public company, they have to live to the expectations of their investors. So this means that they must set goals and new objectives that keep the company growing. It is as simple as if company growth doesn't happen, the value of the stock will not rise. So I guess this is where the core of the problem is.

It is good to become a public company and to raise money from investors that increases the equity of the company, however I they will have to take on the responsibilities that are entitled of being a public.

Who knows: in a few years, we may be seeing a Facebook browser, or a Facebook cell phone software. Those are the kind of goals they have to work on from now and on.