Founder & Chief Executive of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg, will float shares of Facebook next year, Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of LinkedIn an investor in the web site has claimed. Telegraph reports that LinkedIn Co-Founder Hoffman suggested that Zuckerberg will take Facebook public in the “first half of next year”. Hoffman revealed in an interview I suspect that Mark [Zuckerberg] will choose to go public because the company has to put in a lot of financial work in order to make the necessary filings and so he might as well make sure he benefits employees and ultimately the company from the level of work that’s already involved.” Furthermore Hoffman claimed the move to go public will benefit Facebook in lots of ways – namely having public currency to do acquisitions. He added that he suspected that some time in first half of next year, Zuckerberg “will engage in the IPO process”. Social networking giants has until April next year to either make the necessary regulatory filings or conduct an initial public offering (IPO). Analysts have predicted that the web site could set its valuation at $100bn when it floats, becoming the biggest consumer technology public offering ever.
