Interesting analysis. I guess some additonal reasons why Facebook is not IPOing are:<p>1) Expectation that facebook will benefit from high profits in the future - IPOing would mean sharing these profits with millions of shareholders.<p>2) IPOing involves significant costs - companies often spend more than 10% of the money they actually raise on actual IPO costs<p>3) Preference not to disclosure internal company information to the SEC which it would have to do if it IPOs (this would also involve additional legal costs)
Either they don't need money, or the bankers told them they'd get a crap valuation (or both). Why go public in a recession when you can wait 'til the boom times to cash in?