Facebook Likely to IPO in 2012
Once Facebook reaches 500 investors, an SEC rule will require the company to disclose its finances and begin quarterly reports, a usual precursor to the beginnings of an IPO offering.
The company, now based in Palo Alto, could still retain a private ownership structure, but an IPO is the more probable scenario given Facebook will have to make many of the same disclosures of a publicly traded company anyway.
