by Wendy Tanaka for Forbes.com Jan. 6 2011 - 5:56 pm
Image by AFP/Getty Images via @daylife
The social networking giant said it’s planning to go over the 500 shareholder limit, which would require it to disclose financials to the Securities and Exchange Commission even though it is still a private company, according to a document obtained by the Wall Street Journal.
The private placement document filed with the SEC also indicates that Facebook could become a public company by April 2012.
This is the latest development in the big news earlier this week that Facebook received a $500 million investment from Goldman Sachs and Digital Sky Technologies for a nosebleed valuation of $50 billion.
The document filed puts to rest speculation that Facebook and its investors would sidestep the 500 shareholder rule via a “special purpose vehicle” that would allow Goldman’s high-end clients to invest in Facebook. Goldman plans to raise $1.5 billion for Facebook from this special purpose vehicle.
My colleague Jeff Bercovici says there’s so much scrutiny of Facebook because we don’t expect it to act like a business. We expect it to act like our friend.
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