Question of the Week: Why Is Facebook Taking So Long to Go Public? UPDATED with Poll Results

Yesterday, the Financial Times reported that Facebook is preparing to launch its IPO towards the end of 2012. The offering, which is expected to be one of the world's biggest, had been seen coming in April 2012. Some even hoped that it would happen this year. But Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO, is the buzz kill, apparently. The FT reported that Zuckerberg wants to hold off on an IPO for at least a year so that Facebook's employees will stay focused on product developments rather than a payout. Sounds like a reasonable explanation, but the conspiracy theorist in us wonders if there's more to the story. We wonder, for example, if the real reason for the delay is because Facebook's financials aren’t as strong as company sources ...