Here's a quote from a Forbes article by E.D. Kain which highlights the danger in going public. It's a good article and worthy of reading in its entirety.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/02/01/the-real-facebook-ipo-winners-sean-parker-and-bono/
Worse, from a user perspective, all the pressure associated with running a public company, and explaining every move to shareholders, could cause Facebook to make changes that alienate its customer base. ???That kind of pressure can make a company lose sight of what made it so successful in the first place,??? Barrett notes. ???Facebook, in particular, will be immediately under fire for not doing more to monetize each individual user. Its earnings are dramatically below its projections; if it doesn???t find a way to grow quickly, it???ll have hell to pay.???
[unquote]
