Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Rick Aristotle Munarriz :: Townhall.com Columnist
300 Million Reasons for Facebook to Go
by Rick Aristotle Munarriz
Vote on It:
Average Vote:
[+] Text [-]
 
 

Facebook sure has put on a lot of weight this summer. Over the past two months alone, the social-networking site has packed on another 50 million registered users.

Yes, Facebook is taking over the world.

It was mid-July when the company was celebrating a new milestone: A whopping 250 million users. Yesterday it announced that it passed the 300 million mark. Summer may be the seasonally sleepy chunk of the cyberspace calendar, but it's hard to keep a viral trend down.

The real nugget in Mark Zuckerberg's mile-marker announcement is that Facebook is now taking in more money than it's spending.

"Earlier this year, we said we expected to be cash flow positive sometime in 2010, and I'm pleased to share that we achieved this milestone last quarter," he writes. "This is important to us because it sets Facebook up to be a strong independent service for the long term."

Did you catch that? Zuckerberg's blog entry is intended for "fans" of the site. How many do you think grasp the concept of cash flow? Not many, one would think. This feels more like it's either telegraphing an IPO to prospective underwriters. If not, then Facebook is ringing the dinner bell for Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO), Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), or any potential buyer.

One can argue that Zuckerberg is too proud to cash out. He also told Reuters that any potential IPO is still a few years away. Then again, he said that back in May -- Facebook was just a 200-million memberbaby at the time. We still didn't know if the market rally was sustainable.

Facebook would be doing Wall Street a favor by going public now, giving it a sexy name to chew on. Continued...

1 2
| Full Article & Comments | Next >
Share:
Vote on It:
Average Vote:
 
About The Author
Sign Up to Post Your CommentsSign Up to Post Your Comments
If you are already registered, click here to login. Otherwise, please take a few seconds to register with Townhall.com. Once you sign up, you’ll be able to post your comments immediately, use the action center, get podcasts, and more!
Note: Fields marked with a red asterisk (*) are required.
Salutation:
First Name:
*
Last Name:
*
Email:
*
Nickname:
*
Note: Nick name will be shown when you post comments.
Address 1:
*
Address 2:
City:
*
State:
*
Zip:
*
Phone:
      
The very best in financial advice from Dave Ramsey, Larry Kudlow, Motely Fool and many more plus Dilbert!