Facebook Gearing Up to Go Public?

Will Facebook soon be going public? It'd be the hottest stock on Wall Street, and if the social-networking giant's move to establish a dual-class stock structure is any indication, then it appears the company is readying itself for its initial public offering. But an official statement issued by the company said, "This revision to the stock structure should not be construed as a signal the company is planning to go public... Facebook has no plans to go public at this time." The change in voting structure means that all current shareholders will now hold greater voting power, including Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, who is already the company's largest shareholder. Zuckerberg has indicated in the past that the company will eventually go public, and its current move seems to be modeled after Google Inc., which also adopted dual-class stocks when it went public in 2004.