This one certainly seems dirty. The number of shares actually being offered is puny, and Facebook's in fine financial shape. It's plainly obvious that this IPO's purpose is not to raise capital - it's to generate a pop in the share price (as tech IPOs always do) in order to give existing shareholders an opportunity to unload shares at an inflated price.
To be clear, Facebook is going public for two main reasons:
1. Because they have to at this point. SEC rules. Once you hit 500 investors a company must report earnings publicly.
2. Many investors want to cash out. But this could be delayed if reason #1 did not exist.
As for delaying going public and giving bankers the cold shoulder. MZ felt he could run the company better as a private firm. The dot com era is an example of companies and bankers trying to make a quick buck. Don't forgot it was followed by the dot com crash.
