Facebook Seeks $100B Valuation

In 20 years, we'll all be talking about the great social networking bubble of 2011-12.

Facebook is planning on a valuation of $100 billion(!) for its initial public offering, easily trumping all other social networking IPOs, such as the $4.3-billion valuation for LinkedIn when it went public last month. Facebook, which stands to make $4 billion in advertising this year, would overnight become one of the biggest and most valuable tech companies around, rivalling competitors such as Google (worth $160 billion) and Microsoft ($200 billion). Analysts are skeptical that Facebook would really be worth that much, but if there's one thing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg isn't lacking, it's hubris (oh, and money. Lots of that, too). The IPO is expected for late this year or early 2012.