Today, he has turned 28, he is probably the youngest and richest CEO in history and seems to surpass his own record, if rumors turn to be true in the end: Facebook's IPO will be estimated at $100 billion. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, smiles and gestures frantically at conferences, he always wears a casual outfit, he is considerably younger than the average FORTUNE 500 CEO, he has something of Bill Gates' style, but much more of Steve Jobs' unforgettable way of being…you can admire him or hate him, but never ignore him!
Best Birthday Gift: Facebook Rumored To Reach $100 Billion
While some investors worry that Zuckerberg is too young to lead Facebook as a public company, experts point out that Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Michael Dell were acting the same in their 20s, when their companies had IPOs, so he hasn't to be considered an exception. Even so, the pressures of running a public company will undoubtedly increase. Once Facebook begins selling stock, Zuckerberg will be expected to please a series of new stakeholders, including Wall Street investment firms, which will surely require him to keep the company growing, in order to get their parts of profit.
Facebook Inc. is expected to start selling stocks to the public and begin trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market on Friday. The IPO could value Facebook at nearly $100 billion, making it worth more than legendary companies as Disney or Ford. From my point of view this is the world's biggest and most fabulous gift, even for a guy as Zuckerberg.
The legend of Facebook started in Zuckerberg's messy Harvard dormitory in early 2004, one is the father and the other, the son, it's quite impossible to separate them and think that Facebook will ever have another CEO (I seriously consider the hypothesis of a forced bankruptcy, if ever Facebook turns to be economically unsatisfactory). Known as Thefacebook.com back in those days, the site was created to help Harvard students and later other college students, connect with one another online. The scrappy website later grew to include anyone else with an Internet connection. Today more than 900 million people log in at least once a month, making Facebook the world's biggest and most active social network.
All along, Zuckerberg has shown a maturity beyond his years. As the site constantly grew and caught the attention of media, potential customers and rival Internet companies, Zuckerberg constantly refused purchase offers from Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. According to a letter to prospective shareholder, Zuckerberg confessed that he doesn't build services to make money, but he makes money to build better services. He believed in companies offering more than a maximizing profit and he won the lucky card. I might be wrong, but nowadays' Facebook tends to look similar to the despicable companies mentioned, so has the company has changed its mission meanwhile?!
Best Birthday Gift: Facebook Rumored To Reach $100 Billion
People working with Zuckerberg or simply establishing some partnerships say that his age is an asset. He is part of the social networking, computer stuff generation. Facebook divinely deals with online communication, because it was born inside this medium. David Kirkpatrick, the 59-year-old, founder of Techonomy, a media company hosting conferences on the relationship between technology and economy and social progress, first met Zuckerberg six years ago and since that day, he feels a deep admiration for the young CEO, as you can perceive from his book, The Facebook Effect. According to Kirkpatrick, it's the willingness to take risks, the willingness to abide by a very contemporary vision, which impresses you, while seeing Zuckerberg in action.
Zuckerberg, living like a normal man in Palo Alto, knew to get closer to mature mentors, who somehow influenced his manners. One of his closest advisors is Sheryl Sandberg, former Google executive, now Facebook's chief operating officer for advertising and PR. Then there's Donald Graham, the 66-year-old CEO and chairman of The Washington Post Co., also one of the executive board members. With a truly legion of professionals, Facebook's revenue grew from $777 million in 2009 to $3.7 billion last year. In the first quarter of 2012 it was more than $1 billion.
A couple of analysts see in Zuckerberg the image of Jobs, returning to life. Jobs was 25 in 1980, when Apple went public and he loved the same casual style. Not much is known about the relationship between Jobs and Zuckerberg. When Jobs died, Zuckerberg thanked Apple's leader on his Facebook page, for being a mentor and a friend, for changing the world. In addition, former Apple CEO reportedly told his biographer that he didn't see anybody other than Facebook on social networking field. Just Facebook…
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