IPO VIEW-Potential Facebook IPO keeps investors speculating

By Anupreeta Das

NEW YORK, May 23 (Reuters) - Will it, won't it? If so, when? If not, why not? An entire cottage industry of speculation has built up around the public debut of Facebook, arguably Silicon Valley's hottest Internet company.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder and chief executive, has remained mum on the social network's IPO plans, except to tell CBS's 60 Minutes in January that a 2008 IPO is "highly unlikely."

That hasn't stopped bloggers and investors from interpreting Facebook's every move as preparation for an eventual public offering.

That Facebook has been steadily expanding its ranks -- it now employs 550 people, according to the company -- and recently hired a string of Google Inc (GOOG.O) executives, including Sheryl Sandberg, Google's former sales chief who is the new Facebook chief operating officer, has only fed the speculation.

A Facebook spokeswoman declined to comment.

Venture capitalists say the excitement around Facebook is warranted given the explosive growth in membership. The social network has more than tripled the number of active members to 70 million from about 20 million in April 2007.

Advertisers are attracted by the huge opportunity presented by social networks, where millions of people often post their interests and tastes on their online profiles. This online behavior allows advertisers to target their messages specifically to groups of people.

"Social media is going to be mainstream, it's going to be ubiquitous," said Mayfield Fund managing director Navin Chaddha at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms summit this week.

"It's where people are going to hang out," he said, adding that the next Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) or Google Inc is going to emerge from among the crop of these Web 2.0 start-ups.

WEB 2.0

That's the main reason why Web 2.0 companies -- called so because the Web-based programs they offer are more dynamic and interactive than dot-com era companies -- are getting large valuations.

Software giant Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) took a $240 million stake in Facebook last year, valuing the four-year-old company at $15 billion.

That's slightly more than the $14.7 billion market value of HJ Heinz Co (HNZ.N), according to Reuters data, but less than half that of Yahoo, whose market cap was $37.6 billion.

"(Facebook) is not riding a crest," said Bob Davis, general partner at Highland Capital Partners. "It is the crest in terms of what's taking place out there today."

Following the Facebook funding, in January Slide Inc -- a start-up that lets people create their own photo slide shows to put on their social network profiles -- received a $50 million round of funding, valuing the company at about $500 million.