Facebook inching toward disclosing financial information
Facebook Inc. could be forced to disclose financial information, according to Bloomberg.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. invested $450 million in Facebook and is planning to allow clients to make additional investments worth as much as $1.5 billion, according to two people who spoke on condition of anonymity to Bloomberg.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires any company with more than 499 investors and more than $10 million in assets to disclose financial information. The SEC is currently investigating private company trades in secondary markets.
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has declined to release financial information in the past, and would prefer not to do so for as long as possible. Zuckerberg rejected billion-dollar offers for the company in the past.
“Mark would absolutely prefer not have an (initial public offering) until he absolutely has to,” said David Kirkpatrick, author of “The Facebook Effect,” in an interview with The New York Times. “He absolutely doesn’t want to sacrifice control because he believes that his vision is necessary to keep powering the company forward.”
For now, he doesn’t have to, as the Goldman Sachs investment amounts to less than 1 percent of the company’s value.