Expect Facebook to Be Publicly Traded Next Year

The Goldman-Facebook deal has triggered all kinds of speculation about whether Mark Zuckerberg will turn his little company into a publicly traded one, and the Wall Street Journal now makes things a little less abstract: Figure on Facebook going public by April 2012. It arrives at that date based on a newly released Facebook document that predicts the company will hit a critical 500-shareholder threshold this year.

The milestone triggers an SEC requirement to disclose financial information, even if the company is private. While some investors thought the Goldman deal was an attempt to get around the rule, "the document makes clear that isn't the case and that Facebook will likely be a publicly traded company in 2012," writes the Journal.