Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg may be seething at David Fincher's upcoming movie about him, "The Social Network," but the value of that little social network he founded is soaring.
According to a report by the Financial Times, Facebook is now "worth as much as $33.7 billion" — or more than the current market caps of Ebay ($30 billion) and Yahoo ($18.1 billion), though well below Google’s ($143.9 billion).
The Times bases that estimate on secondary market transactions of stock in the privately held company. According to the paper, common stock in Facebook is now trading as high as $76 per share "as investors scramble to get a piece the company before it files for an initial public offering.
And forget Demand Media. A Facebook IPO would no doubt be the biggest in the technology sector since Google's $1.67 billion one in 2004.
As the Times notes, some of Facebook's "friends" in Silicon Valley, like Zynga, and rivals like Twitter and Linked-In have delayed their own IPOs because of a "perceived weak appetite on the public markets."
But that sentiment could change as the ecomony continues to dust itself off from the depressionary doldrums of 2008 and 2009.
Facebook, too, has hinted it “may remain unlisted until at least 2012,” according to the Times, which could be why some investors are selling their private stakes now and, in turn, driving the valuation.
All of which will make the "topless girls, cocaine, and Justin Timberlake" scene in “The Social Network” go down a little smoother for Mr. Zuckerberg.
