From the article: Of course, this does not mean that it is a busi­ness that is guar­an­teed suc­cess in the future. Some ques­tions still remain around the cost of its rev­enue and the company’s abil­ity to con­tinue on the same growth curve as it has in recent years.

And the article is too lazy to compare the plans for what the two companies want(ed) to do with the cash. Google's prospectus wanted the cash to finance new operations. Facebook's IPO prospectus says it wants to invest the proceeds in bonds. In other words, it has no business rationale for the IPO.

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Source: 'as it admitted in its filing on Wednesday, its cash flow and credit “will be sufficient to meet our operational needs for the foreseeable future”. ... So what are its plans for the additional $5bn it may raise from an IPO? It intends to put the cash into US government bonds and savings accounts, and perhaps use some to pay the tax due on converting into shares the “restricted stock units” it has given to its 3,200 staff.'

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/cd03c402-4dba-11e1-a66e-00144...

(registration walled)