RUMOR: FACEBOOK GOING PUBLIC BETWEEN APRIL AND JUNE 2012

Facebook Inc. is inching closer to an initial public offering that it hopes will value the company at more than $100 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The social networking firm is now targeting a time frame of April to June 2012 for an initial public offering, said people familiar with the matter. The company is exploring raising $10 billion in its IPO, in a deal that might assign Facebook a $100 billion valuation.

A Facebook IPO has been hotly anticipated for several years, and viewed as a defining moment for the latest Web investing boom. The company has been vague about whether it would even make such an offering and silent on timing of an IPO. "We're not going to participate in speculation about an IPO," said Facebook spokesman Larry Yu.
The company now appears poised to go ahead with a deal.

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has in the past publicly expressed reluctance to do an IPO. And he has opted to keep Facebook private longer than many suspected he would. But he is warming to the idea. Facebook is now in internal discussions over the timing of its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and is considering filing dates as early as this year, said these people. Mr. Zuckerberg hasn't made any final decisions, these people cautioned. [Wall Street Journal]

GROUPON IPO ON HOLD

Groupon, which is expected to fetch a $20 billion valuation upon its stock-market debut, canceled its investor roadshow and is reevaluating plans for an initial public offering in the face of stock-market volatility, said a person familiar with the matter. While the Chicago company isn't pulling its IPO, it is reassessing its timing on a week by week basis, this person added.

Groupon had originally been aiming to go public after Labor Day and to price its shares in mid-September, this person said. The roadshow had been planned for next week. A Groupon spokesman declined to comment.

PRIVATE PROFILES WILL NOT BE ALLOWED IN GOOGLE + AFTER JULY 31ST

Don't want anyone searching for you on Google+? No problem! Just leave your profile marked as private and Google will punt your page from the cloud after July 31st. If you still want your profile around come August, you'll need to mark it as public before that deadline. You can still keep most of your personal details under lock and key, limiting access to specific elements to yourself, your circles, extended circles, or anyone on the web -- Google does require that your full name and gender be available to everyone, however.

RUMOR: FACEBOOK TO GO PUBLIC IN FIRST QUARTER 2012, VALUED AT OVER $100 BILLION

According to CNBC, Facebook may go public during the first quarter of next year, and sources expect the company could be valued at more than $100 billion. Facebook could find an IPO more attractive once it surpasses a total of 500 investors, because after that milestone it will be required to file financial information with the SEC each quarter — otherwise known as the “500 rule” of the 1934 Securities and Exchange Act. CNBC said that Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer, recently said that an IPO would be “the next thing that happens” and that such a move is “inevitabl

RUMOR: FACEBOOK GOING PUBLIC IN 2011

A rumor is floating around that Facebook will be going public in 2011. What started the rumor? An SEC, the Securities and Exchange Commission, not the Southereastern Conference, investigation. Even though Facebook is a privitely held company, it still issues shares. By law unless Facebook goes public they must keep the number of shareholders in their private company to under 500, but those 499 shareholders can then buy, sell and trade their stock without any oversight and that is what the SEC is irked about.

The SEC believes the unregulated shares have caused Facebook's value to be inflated by billions of dollars. Facebook really doesn't want the SEC to investigate them since some of the trades may not have been kosher and there may be over 500 shareholders. Because of this, Facebook can decide to become a public company and avoid the SEC investigation.

This is not unheard of. Google was forced to go public in 2004 to overcome the 500 shareholder rule. So Facebook really has two options, either buy out the shareholders or go public. Both have advantages and disadvantages, so it will be interesting to see what they do. [SF Gate]

INTERNET EXPLORER 9 PUBLIC BETA RELEASED

Microsoft has launched a salvo against it's competitors today by releasing the public beta of Internet Explorer 9.

IE9 has been updated with a new user interface and design.  Taking cues from Windows 7, IE9 now allows for pinning of sites.  The have vastly improved the tab functionality and included One Box, where the address bar is also the search bar.  IE9 has finally added a download manager that works.

In addition to those changes, Microsoft has been hard at work, working on the performance of the browser.  While the beta is faster than the current IE 8, it is still slower than Chrome and about on par with Firefox 3.6. [Review at Engadget] [Download IE9 Public Beta]