Is it possible that facebook will go public in the stock market and if so is it a good buy?

[enigma84007]

I have heard some speculation that facebook could someday go public in the stock market. If so will it be a good buy? Will it compare to google?

[chris m]

With the competition and the fact that WAY more people use myspace as a social network I think that if it goes public its not going anywhere..up or down.

Maybe slight increases and decreases though I don't see it going to google status...pretty much ever.

[dan]

It is possible and there has been much speculation over a possible Facebook IPO. A lot of this speculation was quieted last year when Microsoft bought a small private stake (something like $300 million) in the company last year, which in effect valued Facebook at around $15 billion

Just recently it was discovered that Facebook was actually only valued by Microsoft at around $3 billion or so.

The chances of Facebook going public are now much lower, but the financial industry understands what it is and would likely pour a lot of capital into it right at the outset if it ever happened.

I for one would probably try get allocations if they ever decide to do an IPO, but it could be a long ways off if ever.

Will it compare to Google? Probably not, Google is near a $200 billion market cap and a much larger company with a lot more earnings. Facebook is still as of now just a big social network trying to leverage its advertising and developer platform.

[who?]

without knowing the ipo price, how can we tell if it's a good buy or not?

when you buy a stock, you shouldn't really care about the company that much. you need to care about the valuation of the stock.