A report by financial researchers Greencrest made the valuation of the social media giant based on trading in secondary markets where deals are done in private.
Facebook went public in May 2012 and despite being initially valued at more than US$100 billion and experiencing a surge in buyers – 82 million shares were sold in the first 30 seconds of trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange – it has since suffered and now faces stricter privacy scrutiny because of its public status.
Jack Dorsey, Twitter Chairman, said last year the company would go public “when we feel the company is ready for that milestone”. Analysts previously believed that would be during 2013.
But Greencrest said while the microblogging site is preparing to go public by firming up its management structure and increasing monetisation potential, they did not expect it to progress until next year.
