Facebook Inc. is expected to hear from regulators about their preliminary paperwork any day now, which means it will hit the road as early as next Monday for a pre-IPO roadshow, or last minute pitches to investors.
The roadshow will be headlined by CFO David Ebersman and COO Sheryl Sandberg. It is uncertain whether CEO Mark Zuckerberg will accompany them on their 8-9 day tour of American cities including New York, Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, Baltimore, and Los Angeles (a maybe as of this writing).
Based on the results of the roadshow, Facebook is set to go public on Nasdaq (ticker: FB) tentatively dated May 18 date. It will be the largest internet IPO in history and is expected to raise as much as $10-bln.
The world’s largest social network has been planning for the IPO for months now, purchase of the photo-sharing site, Instagram, being its latest effort. The $1-bln deal is said to have been independently conducted by Zuckerberg.
CFO Ebersman and COO Sandberg’s main task for the roadshow will be easing investor angst about the company’s subpar first-quarter earnings and to ensure them that the $100 valuation is justified.
First-quarter net income was $205-mln, down 12 per cent from $233-mln last year. Facebook claimed mounting expenses as the reason for the profit fall.
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May Jeong is Toronto Standard’s business editor. Follow her on Twitter @mayjeong.
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