Facebook Files S-1 For $5 Billion IPO

Facebook on Wednesday filed its S-1 form with the SEC for an Initial Public Offering.

The company is seeking to raise $5 billion.

You can check out the S-1 here.

Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also penned a letter outlining the goals behind the company's IPO.

"Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected," he wrote. "We think it’s important that everyone who invests in Facebook understands what this mission means to us, how we make decisions and why we do the things we do."

He went on to write, in part,

Facebook aspires to build the services that give people the power to share and help them once again transform many of our core institutions and industries. [...] There is a huge need and a huge opportunity to get everyone in the world connected, to give everyone a voice and to help transform society for the future. The scale of the technology and infrastructure that must be built is unprecedented, and we believe this is the most important problem we can focus on.

Visit TechCrunch to read Zuckerberg's entire letter.

According to the S-1, the company will trade under the ticker symbol "FB."

The IPO's lead underwriters include Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs. Other underwriters are Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclay’s Capital, and Allen & Company.

In 2011, the company boasted $3.7 billion in revenue -- 85% of that coming from advertising -- and a net income of $1 billion. That year, Zuckerberg's base salary was $500,000. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, meanwhile, enjoyed a base salary of $300,000 in 2011.

The filing also revealed that the service now has 845 million monthly active users.

Take a look at the slideshow (below) to see a sampling of Twitter reactions to Facebook's huge announcement. Then, read on to see the best new stats Facebook revealed when it filed its S-1, as well as 9 huge risks that could threaten Facebook's success. Read on to see how you helped Facebook evolve from a Harvard doom room project to a tech juggernaut.

Comments

[BrendanP]

12:15 AM on 02/03/2012

Another economic empire that has a foundation made of sand.

[Jim NLN]

01:47 PM on 02/02/2012

Are Facebook users Zuckers? Only time will tell.

[theepro52]

12:59 PM on 02/02/2012

What is a Facebook and what do they make?

[fauxtronic]

11:39 AM on 02/04/2012

Facebook is a social network with a mass of data (personal information, photos, status updates) which 850 million users voluntarily add to every single day of the week. Facebook then sell this data to advertisers or anybody who wants to buy it. Glad I could be of help. You're welcome.

[Adrian31]

11:48 AM on 02/02/2012

Mark's dreams of sharing and having everyone interconnected will be shattered once the 'board of directors' moves in and pushes those dreams aside for the sole purpose of profits for the shareholders and themselves.

[PhillipCollins]

10:20 AM on 02/02/2012

Wow, who ever thought a website used for posting photos of your dinner, stalking your ex girlfriend or boyfriend, and posting what movie you are watching would ever take off like this!

[sjoberdix]

08:46 AM on 02/02/2012

test

[fairlyfit]

06:59 AM on 02/02/2012

"There is a huge need and a huge opportunity to get everyone in the world connected, to give everyone a voice and to help transform society for the future."

So Mark ... you will be using your new found wealth to supply Smart Phones and an I/T infrastructure to the good folks in Zimbabwe, Congo (Democratic Republic of the), Niger, Burundi, Mozambique (just to mention a few), to accomplish this noble mission?

Or, would you care to fess up now and admit that it's (head pointing down) all about greed and the money? Just remarking ...

[Paul Rainwater]

12:09 AM on 02/02/2012

And more Wall Street guys and the insiders will become even richer after this "IPO", NO WAY I would buy this stock at the post IPO price, suckers game ...

[sandiegoconservative]

01:35 PM on 02/02/2012

I had a couple of liberal-minded friends say the exact same thing about Google. I was foolish to jump in at the opening bell in August, 2004 (I think?) and try to get shares at $100.00 a piece. I was stupid for juggling some assets to have cash on hand to buy as many shares since it was so "subjective".

I bought 55 shares that day, and 26 shares the next day. I sold them about 2.5 years later for around $350.00 a piece. It was the down payment on my house, a payoff of almost all our credit card debt, and 2 months of savings.

A suckers game, indeed.

[4 EYES]

11:40 PM on 02/01/2012

Just consider the boost this will give the GDP...while producing nothing....

[fauxtronic]

11:45 AM on 02/04/2012

Who produces the website then that 850 million users log into everyday? Elves, pixies, something like that?

[4 EYES]

07:45 AM on 02/05/2012

The pixies and elves will still be there. The IPO will generate ARTIFICIAL (and inflated) GDP for the US, meaning the economy looks better. Nothing new is produced. GDP is really a poor measurement of productivity....8-)

[Abbey Normal]

10:42 PM on 02/01/2012

Too bad this fantastical prosthesis for a real life while robbing one of precious minutes won't pan out as a substitute for actually having one and using those personally scarce life-minutes more significantly.

[BrendanP]

10:05 PM on 02/01/2012

An empire worthy of Bernie Madoff!

[JustMeinNJ]

09:30 PM on 02/01/2012

Outstanding! What bright young minds and I am proud of them!
I've reconnected with long lost friends, family and met people (in person) from around the world. So much more to FB than what the jokes would have you think here.

[Rich914]

09:22 PM on 02/01/2012

Good for FB and good luck to all its investors. If it can pull in a billion bucks a year in revenue they are doing something right. Personally I don't log on very often. It was fun to see that all my high school and college acquaintances were still around. I noticed that a few of them posted messages every single day about every little thing and occasionally bought me drinks I couldn't drink. I hope younger people and older ones too don't fall into substituting FB for a real social life with real friends that you really spend time with and talk to. Do advertisers really get their money's worth on FB, or are they just there because everyone else is there and are afraid what would happen if they weren't? What will the next "FB" be like? Will FB get hit with anti-trust suits? Now that its going to be publicly held, will all the creativity and youthful spirit of its originators disappear and be replaced with a board of directors and corporate culture? Who knows? Good luck FB!

[JacksonRaiford]

09:22 PM on 02/01/2012

http://youtu.be/DNbS-_OYxU8

[OneInEveryFamily]

09:20 PM on 02/01/2012

5 Billion should be enough to get them an invite to the S&P 500. That would probably make Zuckerberg the wealthiest man in the country.

[Adrian31]

11:50 AM on 02/02/2012

You mean apart from 4 or 5 others who are worth more than Zuck even after FB hits the market...

[OneInEveryFamily]

12:22 PM on 02/02/2012

Did I say "after FB hits the market? I was referring to when it hits the S&P with so little float.