Facebook files for US$5 bln IPO

Facebook on Wednesday filed to raise US$5 billion in what will be one of the largest initial public offerings (IPOs) for an Internet company so far.

Headquarter of Facebook in California. The IT company, founded in 2004,  has 845 million users. [CFP]

According to its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Facebook now has 845 million users and 463 million daily users. It has annual revenue of US$3.7 billion, US$1.8 billion in operating income and US$1 billion net income.

The world's largest social network chose to file IPO at its eighth birthday and the filing sets the stage for it to go public in May, perhaps the most anticipated financial events in Silicon Valley in recent years.

It its filings, Facebook said it plans to raise 5 million dollars, which analysts said would likely change in an IPO that could value the company at between 75 billion to 100 billion dollars.

In a letter to investors included in the filings, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that 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."

"We think it's important that everyone who invests in Facebook understands what this mission means to us," he wrote.

Regarding business, Zuckerberg said "we think a more open and connected world will help create a stronger economy with more authentic businesses that build better products and services ... As people share more, they have access to more opinions from the people they trust about the products and services they use."

"This makes it easier to discover the best products and improve the quality and efficiency of their lives," he said.