Image Source: Giga OM

BY MADISON MACK


The speculation and rumors can end, at least for now. Right on queue, Facebook has officially filed for its initial public offering. Here’s Bloomberg.

“The eight year old company looking to raise five billion dollars in the most anticipated IPO in years. The prospectus is jammed pack with numbers and facts on Facebook’s business.”

Engadget takes a look at some of those mind-boggling numbers.

“…the service has 845 million active users each month, nearly half of which log in and actuate 2.7 billion likes and comments each day. It also shed light on the company’s prior revenue and earnings … with profits of $229 million and $606 million in 2009 and 2010, respectively -- easily bested by a whopping $1 billion in 2011.”

The Verge points out – CEO Mark Zuckerberg owns 28 percent of the company but as for his salary -- probably not what you’d think.

“He’s got a base salary of $500,000, peanuts for a man who ranks as one of the wealthiest on the planet … As you can imagine, those figures don't tell the full story once you factor in stock benefits … As of January of next year, Zuckerberg's annual salary will drop to just $1, a common practice among wealthy chief executives with a lot of skin in the game.”

The stock won’t hit the open market for a few months – after the SEC has reviewed all the paperwork. And buried in that paperwork is a passionate letter from Zuckerberg which GigaOM notes – gives some insight into Zuckerberg’s vision for his company’s future.

“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.”

The company is currently valued at $100 billion and has applied to trade under the ticker symbol FB.