Notre Dame Expert Tim Loughran: Facebook IPO Can Wait

Facebook's IPO waiting game makes sense from a market standpoint, says Tim Loughran, finance professor at the University of Notre Dame. "If Facebook doesn't need the money at the present moment, and the stock market rises in the next few years, Mark Zuckerberg will have been smart to hold off," says Loughran, an expert in equity investing. "However, if the S&P 500 Index drops in value in the future, the delay could lead to his firm selling at a much lower multiple." Facebook CEO Zuckerberg recently told a gathering of press and advertising partners that he's in no rush to take the social networking site public. He will eventually, though, because that was the agreement with investors and employees.