[loverobots]

Still, this isn't necessarily a negative for Facebook. They optimized their take, and Zuckerberg won't be needing the market's approval or capital again for a while.

Technically, but the minute you go public you have to worry about the stock price. If the stock drops (IMO, it will drop here) expect a deluge of doom and gloom stories from the media questioning their business model and everything else in between. Then you may have unhappy employes due to the stock drop, harder time hiring, higher expenses since the stock price isn't rising and so on. Bezos did it so far, but it isn't easy. Zuckenberg sold a nice chunk of his $100 Billion company, buyers will be vocal if the price drops.

FB will have to do everything right for a few years just to justify the $100 billion price tag. It's not easy as ads can drive people away.

[joering2]

good read, I +1 you. And don't forget that Facebook does not have a special place in media when it comes ONLY to a positive news; they will write about them big time whether its good or bad news. This will definitely not play nice when there are some bad news, because lots of publicity around bed news will have an impact on their stock performance.