
I was having coffee on Sunday morning at one of Singapore's famous food centers, Lau Pa Sat, while reading The Straits Times (Singapore's daily newspaper). I came across a very interesting article about what will easily become the largest IPO in history for any internet company. Being that the Facebook Roadshow (a presentation by an issuer of securities to potential buyers) kicks off this week in New York City, I wanted to share some interesting highlights of the article with my readers . . .
Below: Lau Pa Sat, one of Singapore's famous Hawker centers which is on the 1000 Places to See Before you Die list.

Facebook IPO Facts (courtesy of the Straits Times and Bloomberg):
- The value of the IPO is estimated at $76 -$95 billion USD (About S$119 billion Singapore Dollars). That puts the price range of it's shares somewhere between $28-$35 USD
- To put that in perspective, Google's IPO raised $1.9 billion USD (a difference of $93 billion!!)
- Facebook has over 900 million users. If it were a country it would be the 3rd largest country in world behind China (1.34 billion people) and India (1.17 billion people)
- The most number of Facebook users is found in the U.S. (157 million) then India (45.9 m), Brazil (45 m), Indonesia (42 m) and Mexico (33 m)
- $15 billion . . . the stock value that Mark Zuckerberg will after the IPO. He will own 57 % of Facebook.
- $2 billion . . . The value of Eduardo Saverin's stake in Facebook after the IPO. Saverin lives in Singapore and is a regular at many of the cities most exclusive clubs (read more here)
Below: Eduardo Savierin at a social gathering in Singapore. He's reportedly dating Miss Singapore 2009 and helping to manager her new cosmetics line "Rachel K Cosmetics"

- 2 billion . . . The value of Sean Parker's stake in Facebook. Parker was one of the original financial backers of Facebook and founder of Napster and Spotify.
- Despite all the IPO hype, according to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook's growth slowed by 6% from last quarter. There is also doubt around whether ads on Facebook will actually lead people to buy products.
Below: The cast of 2010's blockbuster "The Social Network" staring Andrew Garfield (as Mark Zuckerberg), Jesse Eisenberg (as Eduaro Saverin) and Justin Timerlake (as Sean Parker).

Below: A comparison of the actors from "The Social Network" and their real-life counterparts.
