VOA标准英语2012--Facebook To Raise $5 Billion From Initial Public Offering

Facebook To Raise $5 Billion From Initial Public Offering

With more than 800 million users worldwide, Facebook is second only to Google as the most visited website on the Internet.
But with plans to raise an initial $5 billion from its first IPO, analysts² say the company is poised³ to become one of the richest.
Equity⁴ analyst¹ Anupam Palit at Greencrest Capital says when it comes to social media, nothing even comes close to Facebook.
"It is the biggest company in this space and we believe what makes it very unique from every other company that went public last year in this space is that it is very, very profitable," said Palit.
How profitable? Early estimates suggest the social network is worth between $50 to $100 billion. David Kirkpatrick is author of The Facebook Effect:
"Will Facebook's IPO be the biggest IPO in American history, probably not, but it will certainly be by far the biggest Internet or technology IPO we've ever seen," said Kirkpatrick.
And when ticker symbol FB starts trading a few months from now, it could make Facebook founder⁵ Mark Zuckerberg - at 27 - one of the world's youngest billionaires.
Institutional investors⁶ are likely to get the first shot at buying Facebook stock. But asset manager Jim O'Shaugnessy says that's not such a bad thing.
"Many IPO's come out being very, very overvalued because they get so hyped up and investors are so taken in by the story that they're willing to pay any amount just to be able to get into the stock," said O'Shaugnessy. "That generally translates to being very overvalued. So we generally tell investors that they should wait, probably a good full year before they look at buying stock that was recently IPO'd."
Market performance for Internet IPO's often does not live up to the hype. The most recent - LinkedIn, Groupon and Zynga, all saw share prices plummet⁷ as much as 25 percent after going public.
There were similar doubts about Google when it went public in 2004. Back then Google stock sold for $84. Today it's worth almost $600 a share.
Despite the risks, analysts say there's no shortage of investors willing to take a chance on the next big thing.

1 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

2 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

3 poised   

a.摆好姿势不动的

参考例句：

• The hawk poised in mid-air ready to swoop. 老鹰在半空中盘旋，准备俯冲。
• Tina was tense, her hand poised over the telephone. 蒂娜心情紧张，手悬在电话机上。

4 equity   

n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票

参考例句：

• They shared the work of the house with equity.他们公平地分担家务。
• To capture his equity,Murphy must either sell or refinance.要获得资产净值，墨菲必须出售或者重新融资。

5 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

6 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

7 plummet   

vi.(价格、水平等)骤然下跌；n.铅坠；重压物

参考例句：

• Mengniu and Yili have seen their shares plummet since the incident broke.自事件发生以来，蒙牛和伊利的股票大幅下跌。
• Even if rice prices were to plummet,other brakes on poverty alleviation remain.就算大米价格下跌，其它阻止导致贫困的因素仍然存在。