Facebook files $5 billion IPO, values the company at nearly $100 billion

[xxMATTGxx]

Facebook business watchers have been waiting for this day for a long time. Today, the massive social networking service announced that it will start trading some of its stock publicly sometime later this year. Facebook filed its papers for the IPO with the US Securities and Exchange Commission late today.

In its filing today, Facebook said that it is looking to raise about $5 billion when its IPO launches. There had been some rumors that the company was looking to raise $10 billion. It's more than possible that the $5 billion mentioned in the filing today could go up depending on investor demand.

In its papers, Facebook says it currently has 845 million users worldwide. It adds that it has 483 million users who check out Facebook every day, a pretty significant number no matter how you look at it.

Facebook's financial numbers are nothing to sneeze at. It claims to have $3.7 billion in annual revenue with $1.8 billion in operating income per year and a whopping $1 billion in annual net income.

Facebook expects that it will begin trading its stock sometime in the second quarter of 2012. The likely month for the stock launch could be May. Facebook will have "FB" as its trading symbol but did not name which stock exchange it will use.

Source: http://www.neowin.net/news/facebook-...-million-users

It amazes me how Facebook has grown since day one, big well done to the facebook team and well it wouldn't of happened without us:

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[Mathew]

Impressive. It should be interesting to see the popularity of it.

[peteyt]

Facebook just keeps on getting bigger.

I used to think it would follow the same path of MySpace and Bebo but I'm not too sure now.

[Jordy]

Facebook just keeps on getting bigger.

I used to think it would follow the same path of MySpace and Bebo but I'm not too sure now.

I have to agree, it looks like it's going to go the way of Microsoft. It'll get so big that the only thing it can do is get smaller. It's probably a few years off peaking though.

[GommeInc]

It's amazing how much this news is taking up the airwaves and newspapers

Zuckerberg seems like he will be staying at the lead and will only steer the company if he thinks the direction is a good decision, which is good - it keeps Facebook the creation and vision of one man, rather than a way to rake as much money from people by any means possible. That said, Facebook only ever drags me in for events and minor talks with friends - for anything interesting I find myself on Google+ talking to people who have more than 5 brain cells amongst them.

[peteyt]

You got to respect Zuckerberg. I don't know a lot about him but didn't he drop out of college and look what he's done. It really shows if you have a good idea and push it forward it can work.

It does make me think about the many people, many I work with, that go on about saying how they could do so much more but the problem is most of these people never really do. If you want to make something of your life, you have to actually do something.

[Jordy]

You got to respect Zuckerberg. I don't know a lot about him but didn't he drop out of college and look what he's done. It really shows if you have a good idea and push it forward it can work.

It does make me think about the many people, many I work with, that go on about saying how they could do so much more but the problem is most of these people never really do. If you want to make something of your life, you have to actually do something.

He dropped out of college because Facebook was so successful, much like Bill Gates dropping out to focus his efforts on Microsoft. So yes they are "College drop-outs" but that's because they had better things to go on to, not because they weren't capable.

"If you want to make something of your life, you have to actually do something." - And whilst that's a nice attempt to sound philosophical, it's just stating the very obvious.

[peteyt]

He dropped out of college because Facebook was so successful, much like Bill Gates dropping out to focus his efforts on Microsoft. So yes they are "College drop-outs" but that's because they had better things to go on to, not because they weren't capable.

"If you want to make something of your life, you have to actually do something." - And whilst that's a nice attempt to sound philosophical, it's just stating the very obvious.

I never said they weren't capable though I was just stating the fact he had dropped out - people do see drops out as useless and this goes to show that really university can help you but isn't always anecessity.

And my end part may seem very obvious but to many it isn't. Many think the government and so on should do something for them and what these people don't realise is you make your own life, future etc.