This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语经济报道。
Investors soon will be able to own shares of Facebook stock. The world's biggest social media network presented documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday. The documents are required before the company can make its initial public offering, or IPO. A date for the stock sale has yet to be announced.
投资者很快将能够拥有Facebook的股份。周三，这家全球最大的社交媒体网络向美国证券交易委员会递交了IPO（首次公开募股）所需要的文件。股票上市交易日期尚未公布。
Experts say Facebook could raise about five billion dollars. That would be one of the biggest IPO sales ever. And it would be much bigger than Google's first public stock sale in two thousand four. At that time, the Internet search company raised almost two billion dollars.
专家们表示，Facebook有望募集大约50亿美元。这将是有史以来最大的一次IPO交易，比2004年Google首次上市交易大得多。当时，这家互联网搜索引擎公司募集了近20亿美元。
Facebook has eight hundred million users around the world. It is the second most visited website after Google. Now, experts say the social media network is in a position to become one of the most valuable Internet companies.
Facebook在全球拥有8亿用户，其访问量排名第二，仅次于Google。专家们目前表示这家社交媒体网站有资格成为最有价值的互联网公司之一。
Stock expert Anupam Palit at Greencrest Capital says that among social media sites, Facebook is in a class by itself.
Greencrest Capital的股票专家阿努帕姆·帕里特(Anupam Palit)说，在社交媒体网站中，Facebook是独一无二的。
ANUPAM PALIT: "It is the biggest company in this space and we believe what makes it very unique from every other company that went public last year in this space is that it is very, very profitable."
帕里特：“它是其中最大的公司，我们认为，与去年上市的其它公司相比，它的与众不同体现在盈利上。”
Early estimates place the total value of the social network between seventy-five and one hundred billion dollars. That includes earlier investments by other companies. David Kirkpatrick wrote the book "The Facebook Effect." He says Facebook's IPO will be historic.
Facebook早期估值在750亿到1000亿之间，这其中包括了其它公司的早期投资。大卫·柯克帕特里克（David Kirkpatrick）写了《Facebook效应》一书。他说，Facebook的IPO将是历史性的。
DAVID KIRKPATRICK: "Will Facebook's IPO be the biggest IPO in American history, probably not, but it will certainly be by far the biggest Internet or technology IPO we've ever seen."
柯克帕特里克：“Facebook的IPO可能未必会成为美国历史上最大的一次IPO。但它一定会成为迄今为止我们见过的最大的互联网或科技行业的IPO。”
The stock sale is also could make Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg one of the world's youngest billionaires. He is only twenty-seven.
股票上市还使得Facebook创始人马克·扎克伯格（Mark Zuckerberg）成为全球最年轻的亿万富翁之一。他只有27岁。
Investment companies are likely to buy Facebook stock first. But investment manager Jim O'Shaugnessy says that is not so bad. He says the price of some IPO stocks are too high and fall not long after they first go on sale.
投资公司可能会先购买Facebook股票。但投资经理吉姆·奥肖尼斯（Jim O'Shaugnessy）表示，这没那么糟糕。他说一些IPO的股票价格太高，上市交易后不久就跌了。
JIM O'SHAUGHNESSY: "Many IPO's come out being very, very overvalued because they get so hyped up and investors are so taken in by the story that they're willing to pay any amount just to be able to get into the stock. That generally translates to being very overvalued. So we generally tell investors that they should wait, probably a good full year before they look at buying stock that was recently IPO'd."
奥肖尼斯：“很多IPO价值被极大高估，因为它们被炒作使得投资者们深信不疑，从而为了买入这支股票不惜代价。简单来说就是被严重高估。所以我们一般会告诉投资者他们应该等等，可能一年后再考虑买入最近IPO成功的股票。”
Recently, share prices of some Internet businesses have fallen after their stock was first offered. For example, stock of LinkedIn, Groupon and Zynga, dropped in price by as much as twenty-five percent after going public.
最近一些互联网企业的股价在上市后都跌了。例如，LinkedIn，Groupon以及Zynga在上市后股价跌去高达25%。
There were similar questions eight years ago when Google first sold stock to the public. Today, Google is one of the world's most valuable technology companies.
8年前Google上市交易时也发生了类似的问题。今天，Google是全球最有价值的科技公司之一。
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