Facebook is likely to launch an initial public offering (IPO) in mid May, which could value the company at around $100bn. If true, then that figure would make it the biggest tech flotation ever.

It remains to be seen whether Wall Street will make any money from the listing, given that Facebook shares may well be popular. They won't need too much of a hard sell.



Google clash

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will have closely watched other recent IPOs - Groupon and Jive Software, to name two - recently. He also knows that he will need a cash boost to fight Google - particularly as Google has now absorbed its social media platform into its Google web searches - a direct threat to Facebook's user model.

Google+ growth has been strong. Just after Christmas it was estimated that Google+ was adding more than 600,000 new users a day: numbers that must give Zuckerberg pause. But Zuckerberg is well supported by his chief financial officer, David Ebersman, who has been preparing the ground for an IPO for some time.

California boost

A Facebook IPO would be good news for California as employees sell stock, boosting their own incomes and state tax receipts simultaneously.

What remains uncertain in this is just how much Facebook depends on social gaming for advertising. That will become clearer when more SEC filing paperwork is disclosed as the company prepares more intently for a possible initial public offering. Zuckerberg rejected a $1bn takeover Yahoo offer in 2006.