Facebook Goes Public

The world’s largest social network readies its IPO. Do you want in?

Social networking giant Facebook is on the home stretch of its IPO this week. It's initial public offering. Readying to sell shares to the general public. And to do it at the highest debut corporate valuation in the U.S. ever — nearly $100 billion, if all goes according to Facebook's wildest dreams.

27-year-old founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his team are hitting the road, talking up a golden future. In 2004, he was a college kid with a big idea. So, is Facebook work more the McDonalds? Amazon? Hewlett-Packard?

This hour, On Point: Facebook goes for the gold.
-Tom Ashbrook

Shayndi Raice, technology reporter for the Wall Street Journal.

David Kirkpatrick, founder of the Techonomy Conference and author of The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company that is Connecting the World.

Richard Waters, West Coast editor for the Financial Times.

Joanna Weiss, op-ed columnist for the Boston Globe. Her piece on the social networking site's IPO is here.

CNN "Mark Zuckerberg is Time's Man of the Year, the movie about him seems likely to be an Oscar winner, and now Goldman Sachs is raising $1.5 billion from its favorite investors on behalf of the social networking company."

The Washington Post "Facebook Inc.’s $11.8 billion initial public offering will cement the status of 27-year-old Mark Zuckerberg as one of the world’s richest men and put his social network among the highest-valued companies in the U.S."

You can find investing information from Facebook here.