Facebook Faces ‘Patent Lawsuits Attacks’ As Initial Public Offering Approaches

Posted on Feb 1 2012 - 6:57am by Editorial Staff

The world’s largest social networking site Facebook as is preparing for its giant and one of the biggest IPOs ever – the company is coming under the similar patent lawsuits attacks as it is earlier being waged by other tech companies in the past.

According to Reuters, Facebook was named as a defendant in total of 22 lawsuits accusing it of patents infringement – which is double the number from previous year 2010. The attacks against Facebook strongly signals that social media is a new frontier in the Silicon Valley patent wars.

The IPO climate raises the stakes for companies to demonstrate solid returns and low risks. As companies undertake an IPO, the heightened level of scrutiny from Wall Street makes aggregators think they can more easily wrest a quick settlement from companies, said Colleen Chien, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law in Silicon Valley.

Facebook which is expected to file its initial paperwork for its Initial Public Offering on Wednesday, seeking to raise $5 billion in its IPO bid. The company has selected Morgan Stanley and four other as bookrunners – Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital and JP Morgan to handle its giant-IPO.

The company once files its IPO initial paperwork as expected for Wednesday – it will sure that the IPO will be anytime by May. The company’s expected valuation will be of anywhere between $75 billion to $100 billion – the largest in the industry.

(Image Source: Facebook, Featured Image)

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