Facebook Recruiters Haven't Caught IPO Fever Yet

Facebook talks about the role it wants to play in economic expansion and job creation, but the company hasn't jacked up its pace of hiring since filing to go public. Facebook has been hiring rather briskly over the past year, but we haven't seen a surge in new job openings that some companies tend to do immediately after registering for an initial public offer. The number of new job openings Facebook has listed over the past week is the same as what previous weeks have seen. Between the company's own careers page and listings on LinkedIn, nearly 60 positions were posted in the seven days since the company registered with the SEC. In addition to listings in Menlo Park, Calif., and Washington, D.C., jobs based in Dublin, Ireland, and Austin, Texas, appeared. About a third of the newly listed jobs are outside the U.S., from the Arabian peninsula to western Europe, all areas in which the company's seeking faster growth. However, the fact that Facebook doesn't appear to be going on a hiring spree yet is significant in itself. During the dot-com boom of the late 1990s to 2001, start-up companies would often staff their ranks right after registering for an IPO, in anticipations of an influx of cash, attention and sales once the firm went public. Given the country's shaky recovery, it makes sense that Facebook would err on the conservative side, and that's something the investment banks would approve of. In fact, George Anders of Forbes.com laid out three scenarios of what Facebook might do with an expected $10 billion in IPO cash. The first option, don't change anything, seems to describe the social network's hiring so far. Anders' second option is to grow organically, meaning "more engineers, open more offices around the world and build infrastructure." But Facebook's business model isn't capital intensive, he points out, and the company prides itself on a lean operation. Facebook's booming advertising revenue could easily cover this type of expansion. Which leads us to option number three: Acquisitions that would bring in personnel. Anders notes that Facebook has already bought up many small-cap Internet firms, such as Chai Labs and HotPotato. But with deepening pockets from the IPO, larger companies could become acquisition targets. Anders concludes that Facebook might just go the Linkedin route: Sit tight on the new pile of cash and wait. Readers, what do you think Facebook will do with its IPO money?

Social Pro Daily

Facebook Recruiters Haven't Caught IPO Fever Yet

Facebook has been hiring rather briskly over the past year, but we haven't seen a surge in new job openings that some companies tend to do immediately after registering for an initial public offer.

Jennifer Moire

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Jennifer Moire