Do we now know Facebook's trading launch date?

David Heath
Tuesday, 31 January 2012 23:16

IT Industry - Listed Tech

The frenzy of Facebook IPO rumours continues unabated.  Do we now know the trading launch date?

It seems that most of the IT press agrees with itself that the Facebook IPO will be announced this week (probably later today US time).  What we weren't so sure about was the date of first trading.

However, a tip-off from within one of the financial advisers suggests we'll be seeing Mark Zuckerberg's smiling face on the Stock Exchange balcony (probably) on Monday May 21st.

How do we know this?

According to an employee at one of the underwriting banks (either Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs), all leave has been cancelled for the weekend of May 18th - 20th - presumably to be sure that all is ready for a launch early in the following week.

Having been on the management team of a company undergoing IPO in Australia, this author can readily attest to the frantic work to be done in the days leading up to the actual launch.

Also of some interest, the New York Post reports that Facebook has reserved the very obvious ticker symbol of FB, although the battle as to whether it lists on the New York Stock Exchange or on Nasdaq is still very much in progress.

...and with a 24% holding in the listed company, Mr Zuckerberg will suddenly be worth a rather cool $24B.  Good luck spending it all!