Facebook going public in 2012?

According to multiple news reports, Facebook could be looking to go public as soon as 2012. They are either going to hold an IPO, or begin disclosing their financial results.

Goldman Sachs is in the process of distributing deal information to wealthy clients who might be interested in becoming part of an investment group of some sort. In this deal memo, Facebook says that they are interested in passing the key 500-shareholder mark this year.

When a company has more than 500 shareholders, they are required to make significant financial disclosures if they want to remain a private entity. Usually, when companies reach this mark, they simply choose to go public.

We’ll see what happens, but you could get a chance to own a piece of the social media giant soon.