In fact, the news was so fascinating to many in the tech world that folks were even LIVEBLOGGING the S-1 forms that any company is required to file for an IPO (I think I'm right about that)...well, practically (though David Gallagher's, tech editor @nytimes, had a tweet about this, it's mysteriously gone? I replied to it...)
Anyway, what's been so interesting about this arc of coverage is that first the business press descended on the forms themselves. One of the findings was that Facebook actually has a decent amount of cash on hand, and a fairly decent idea of how it might continue to make money. In fact, as blogger Dan Frommer points out, Facebook actually is a more diversified company than Google, which still gets 96 percent of its revenue from advertising.
I thought these two stats were particularly interesting:
- Facebook has $3.8 billion in the pocket
- Zynga accounts for almost 12 percent of Facebook's revenue (which might not be the best business model)
- Zuckerberg makes 500k a year. I thought this was kind of small compared to the salaries of football coaches that I'm used to seeing ($4 million for Lane Kiffin at USC)
Then the arc of the coverage changed to the MAN behind the Facebook behemoth. Article after article followed about how Zuckerberg was going to retain control of the company even after IPO because of his massive holdings.
As Fox Business News put it, "Facebook IPO Will Leave Zuckerberg Firmly in the Driver's Seat."
Though I can't embed some of the top coverage, here's CNET's take on it:
As users of Facebook, we need to be thinking about the personality, values, beliefs, and ideals behind Facebook's exec, as it will guide the company. Much as Steve Jobs guided Apple, Facebook's future will largely be determined by 27-year-old Zuckerberg.
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