How much is your Facebook page worth?
(CBS/CNET) - Ever though about how much your status updates are worth? If speculation over Facebook's initial public offering is correct, that number is about $125.
According to the Wall Street Journal's sources, Facebook is in internal discussions over when to file its IPO papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company is considering a $10 billion offering that would value the social network at more than $100 billion, but Facebook chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg has not made any final decisions regarding the size and date of the IPO, the Journal reports.
Facebook currently reports having over 800 million active users. That number was 500 million in 2010.
"We're not going to participate in speculation about an IPO," Facebook spokesman Larry Yu told the Journal.
A $10 billion valuation would make Facebook one of the most valuable tech companies. Although far behind the tech leader Apple's current valuation of $362 billion, Facebook would trump tech veterans Cisco Systems' $96 billion and Hewlett-Packard's $52 billion.
Facebook has to publish its financial data in April 2012 whether or not it goes public. After a $500 million deal with Goldman Sachs in January, the company's investors are expected to exceed 500 shareholders in 2011. The SEC requires private companies to release financial statements when they have over 500 investors.
Rumors about the Facebook IPO have been rampant, yet everyone claims the news is no surprise. What's curious about all the talk of investment is social networking sites don't have a great long-term history. The question we should be asking is whether or not there is a Facebook bubble
It was only this past May that Fast Company reported, "Facebook's membership contracted by nearly 6 million users in the U.S. during the month of May."
While the company's growth is still in an upward trajectory, it was the first time membership contracted in the U.S.
Facebook isn't going anywhere soon, but it was only a few years ago that we all thought the same of MySpace. Luckily for Zuckerberg, the new him hasn't arrived yet.
