Facebook Files for Its Long-Awaited IPO

Posted 02/01/2012 at 3:44pm | by Ryan Whitwam

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It’s finally happened — the Facebook IPO is a real thing. No more speculation, no more guess-work. Facebook filed its S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this afternoon indicating its intention to go public with an eye toward raising $5 billion from sales of stock based on a $100 billion valuation. 

When a company makes the call to go public, they are required to share financial data. As such, this is the first time we’ve gotten a peek at Facebook’s balance sheet. According to the S-1, Facebook pulled in $3.71 billion last year, with net income of $1 billion. When Google filed for its IPO in 2004, the S-1 revealed that it only earned $105 million in profit the previous year. 

Obviously, Facebook has held back longer as the secondary market for private shares has allowed investors to get a taste of the social network. When the stock goes live, it’s probably going to be the biggest buy since Google itself, and will make thousands of Facebook employees really stinking rich. Zuckerberg himself owns about 28% of the company, and will thus be worth $28 billion if the valuation holds up.