Looking back at the history of IPG’s investment, in June 2006 the company had made an initial investment by paying under $ 5 million. The transaction was recorded when Facebook offered selling its shares to IPG, while the latter agreed on spending $10 million with the social networking giant for its agencies’ clients. However when IPG struck a deal in April, 2011, it had 0.4% of stake in Facebook. This deal had valued the social networking giant at $65.50 billion approximately. However, in March and April again the valuations confused on as Facebook was valued at $65 billion and $80 billion. The confusion over its actual valuation still continued when Facebook’s valuation in June, 2011 showed that the company was worth $ 70 billion. This was when Investment fund GSV Capital had purchased 225,000 shares of Facebook.
Interpublic’s Chairman and CEO, Michael I. Roth said that their company’s strategic relationship with Facebook back in 2006 helped them to improve the growth of their offerings for the social media. This was being done by them on behalf of their clients. He continued saying that as Facebook is in the routine of million users, their investment’s strategic move has paid off. Then as they sensed a decent opportunity to divest, they grabbed it with both hands and knew that it was a sensible decision. The resultant was clear as they had agreed to sell half of their stake in Facebook for the said price. 
Facebook would go public mostly next year which could be as soon as launching itself as early as Q1 2012. The estimations which were made three months ago showed that Facebook’s growth was fast and forecasts were made that the profits would increase at a quick pace which would make its valuation justifiable at $100 billion. Many have valued Facebook, but one source which is the most reliable is of Facebook itself when in December 2010 it announced that it values at $50 billion approximately. This may be an old valuation, but till there is another official update, one can consider it the most reliable valuation.
IPG’s stake according to the valuation before its announcement to sell, was roughly at $266 billion which justifies its pre-tax gain to a great extent. Roth had even said that they are even working on repurchasing their share and monetarily, it could count up to $150 million which would therefore increase their current program for repurchasing to $450 million from $300 million. The company has not yet declared an expiry date for this program. This is even being seen as an opportunity by the company to boost their shareholding value and to confidently look forward at the company’s long-term prospects. The last update of their repurchase was on 12th August, 2011 when it repurchased its common stock of $187.6 million which had an inclusion of fees. The approximation of shares could be at 16.8 million.