WSJ corporate deputy bureau chief Spencer Ante analyzes Facebook's IPO filing. AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File 
 
 Facebook Inc. filed for an initial public offering Wednesday that could value the social network between $75 billion and $100 billion, putting the company on track for one of the biggest U.S. stock-market debuts of all time. 
 
 The company hopes to raise as much as $10 billion when it begins selling shares this spring, said people familiar with the matter. Potential buyers got their first look at its financials Wednesday, which showed the company produced a $1 billion profit last year from $3.71 billion in revenues. The company derives 85% of those revenues from advertising, with the rest from social gaming and other fees. 
 
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 In just eight years, Facebook has become the world's social bazaar, where friends gossip, play games and swap 250 million photos per day. It has also emerged as a potent political tool, helping to topple regimes across the Middle East last year. 
 
 Among the surprises in Facebook's S-1 Filing were 2011 revenues, which at $3.7 billion, came shy of what analysts expected. Still, Facebook is on track to be valued between $75 and $100 billion. Geoff Fowler talks through the details with Stacey Delo. 
 
 But for all its success, the question remains just how Facebook will manage its growth into a mature, global business, keeping both advertisers and subscribers happy while balancing demands of privacy and profits. The filing left a few clues that Facebook's founder, 27-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, is worried about how wealth and public scrutiny may change the company's culture. 
 
 At Facebook's offices, employees went about business as usual Wednesday, said one person, enjoying a lunch of lobster bisque, braised beef, Moroccan couscous and apple, cream and honey galette for dessert, said another. A stack of giveaway posters left in a kitchenette at Facebook headquarters read "Stay Focused & Keep Shipping," according to a photo shared by Facebook employees. Mr. Zuckerberg shared a photo on Facebook of the flier on his desk. 
 
 Looming a few months away is Facebook's giant offering, which would top rival Google Inc.'s 2004 IPO. It holds the record for the largest U.S. Internet IPO by raising $1.9 billion at a valuation of $23 billion. Among U.S. companies, only Visa Inc., General Motors Co. and AT&T Wireless have held larger offerings than $10 billion. In the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Facebook said it is seeking to raise $5 billion, but that figure is a placeholder and will likely grow. 
 
 While Facebook is growing fast—revenue grew 88% from a year earlier—the sales figures it released were lighter than some had expected. One widely cited outside estimate from research firm eMarketer pegged Facebook's revenue for 2011 at $4.27 billion. 
 
 Still, Facebook's membership growth has been staggering. The company said in its filing that it has 845 million users globally, up 39% from a year earlier. 
 
 The IPO is set to unleash a wave of wealth across Silicon Valley and yield potentially $100 million or more in fees for Wall Street banks managing the offering, including Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. 
 
 The company chose "FB" as its ticker symbol but hasn't decided whether it will trade on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq Stock Market. 
 
 Mr. Zuckerberg had been famously reluctant to push forward with an IPO. In early 2010, he told The Wall Street Journal that he was in "no rush" for Facebook to go public. 
 
 The CEO owns around 28% of the company and holds 57% of its voting share power, according to the filing. Mr. Zuckerberg will sell shares in the IPO and will use the proceeds to pay taxes, it said. The filing doesn't say how many shares the CEO intends to sell. 
 
 People familiar with Mr. Zuckerberg's thinking said he has long been fearful of the damage an IPO could do to the company's culture. He wants employees focused on making great products, not the stock price, they said. 
 
 Mr. Zuckerberg's thinking began changing when Facebook realized in 2010 that it would have more than 500 shareholders by the end of 2011, which would trigger a regulatory requirement that the company start publicly reporting financials. Mr. Zuckerberg decided it made more sense for Facebook to go public and reap some financial benefit from an IPO. 
 
 Facebook also still faces questions about its commitment to its users' privacy, an issue that had dogged it since its earliest days. Despite a settlement last year with the Federal Trade Commission in which the company agreed to independent privacy audits for 20 years, privacy advocates worry about the vast trove of user data it owns. Mr. Zuckerberg has promised users he is committed to protecting their privacy. 
 
 Facebook takes pains to mention the importance of privacy, mentioning the word 35 times in the filing, and even listing its "privacy and sharing settings" as one of the ways the company creates value. 
 
 Marketwatch columnist Mark Hulbert reports that at its initial public offering Facebook will be nearly 40 times more expensive than the average large IPO of the last four decades. (Photo: AP/Paul Sakuma) 
 
 In a letter to potential shareholders, Mr. Zuckerberg—who has long eschewed the business side of Facebook—said he plans to continue focusing on building products, rather than sales growth. "We don't build services to make money; we make money to build better services," Mr. Zuckerberg wrote. "These days I think more and more people want to use services from companies that believe in something beyond simply maximizing profits." 
 
 Overall, Facebook's annual revenue growth is slower than other tech companies who have staged IPOs recently. Groupon's revenue grew 695% for the nine months ended September 2011 from a year earlier. Zynga's revenue more than doubled for that same time period. 
 
 Unlike some other newly public Web companies, Facebook is profitable, with 2011 profit up 65% from the year earlier period. But growth has its costs. The company's research and development expenses ballooned last year to $114 million in 2011 from $9 million in 2010, primarily due to growth in employee head count and equity compensation. Facebook's costs and expenses are going up faster than revenue. It employs 3,200 as of December, up from 2,172 a year earlier. 
 
 Debra Williamson, an eMarketer analyst who had estimated Facebook's 2011 revenue at $4.27 billion, called the company's revenue "disappointing." 
 
 But Kevin Landis, portfolio manager of Firsthand Technology Value Fund, Inc., which has bought Facebook shares in the secondary market, said he wasn't disappointed and hopes to buy more stock when Facebook goes public. "This is a company that has only just begun to scratch the surface of making money off those hundreds of millions of people getting on Facebook every day," he said. 
 
 Social gaming has become an increasingly important part of Facebook's business. The company generated $557 million in revenue from partners such as Zynga who sell virtual goods last year. 
 
 Facebook's revenue is still driven by online ads. The number of ads delivered on the site grew 42% and the average price per ad grew 18% over 2011 from 2010, according to the filing. 
 
 The company attributed the improvement to a vast trove of information that allows marketers to "show their ads to a subset of our users based on demographic factors such as age, location, gender, education, work history, and specific interests that they have chosen to share with us on Facebook or by using the Like button around the web or on mobile devices." ||||| WSJ's Shira Ovide has details of Facebook's expected IPO, which could have a $100 billion valuation. Photo: REUTERS/Robert Galbraith 
 
 Facebook Inc. is inching closer to an initial public offering that it hopes will value the company at more than $100 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. 
 
 The social networking firm is now targeting a time frame of April to June 2012 for an initial public offering, said people familiar with the matter. The company is exploring raising $10 billion in its IPO—what would be one of the largest offerings ever—in a deal that might assign Facebook a $100 billion valuation, a number greater than twice that of such stalwarts as Hewlett-Packard Co. and 3M Co. 
 
 How much will Facebook be worth once it files for its anticipated-IPO? Facebook is exploring raising $10 billion in an IPO that could value Facebook at more than $100 billion, Spencer Ante reports on Markets Hub. Photo: Reuters. 
 
 A Facebook IPO has been hotly anticipated for several years, and viewed as a defining moment for the latest Web investing boom. The company has been vague about whether it would even make such an offering and silent on timing of an IPO. "We're not going to participate in speculation about an IPO," said Facebook spokesman Larry Yu. 
 
 The company now appears poised to go ahead with a deal. But it will likely come to market at a time when investors are beginning to question the value of some newer Internet businesses. 
 
 The most recent IPO, an $805 million float of discount-deal service Groupon Inc. on Nov. 3, has plummeted 42% in price in the past five trading days after surging in its first day of trading. Business-networking service LinkedIn Corp., whose stock more than doubled from its IPO price on its first day of trading May 19, has since fallen 36%, but remains 33% above its IPO. 
 
 Enlarge Image Close Reuters CEO Mark Zuckerberg is said to be warming to the idea of an IPO. 
 
 IPO: Go, No-Go? Initial public offerings aren't always good investments. Here's a look at some of the high-fliers and flame-outs of the Internet era View Interactive More photos and interactive graphics 
 
 Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has in the past publicly expressed reluctance to do an IPO. And he has opted to keep Facebook private longer than many suspected he would. 
 
 But he is warming to the idea. Facebook is now in internal discussions over the timing of its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and is considering filing dates as early as this year, said these people. Mr. Zuckerberg hasn't made any final decisions, these people cautioned. 
 
 Facebook remains aloof from Wall Street and shows signs of wanting to play by its own rules. 
 
 Companies often explore an IPO once they have $100 million in revenue. Facebook is expected to debut with more than $4 billion in revenue, making it bigger than Web veteran Yahoo Inc. 
 
 Facebook has gone so far as to craft its own prospectus, said the people familiar with the matter. A prospectus document—which is filed with the SEC outlining the company's business—is typically prepared by bankers and lawyers hired by a company. 
 
 Facebook Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman has been leading the company's talks with Silicon Valley bankers about an IPO, said people familiar with the matter. 
 
 Bankers are aggressively pursuing the company, but Facebook remains elusive about a commitment to specific banks, even though an IPO looms. Mr. Ebersman told some bankers that he is skeptical over what contribution investment banks could make to a Facebook IPO, since the company is so highly sought after by major investors, said people familiar with the matter. 
 
 The social network, which was started by Mr. Zuckerberg in 2004 out of his Harvard University dorm room, has led the way in reshaping how people share information and interact with others on the Web. It now counts 800 million users, with 500 million users logging into the site daily. 
 
 Facebook will be required to make its financial information public by April, because the company will cross the 500-shareholder limit by the end of this year. The SEC requires companies with more than 500 shareholders to publicly disclose its financial information. 
 
 Facebook's Growing Ambitions See key dates in the history of the social network. View Interactive 
 
 Facebook could publish its financial information come April without an IPO, but board members and top executives have privately acknowledged that it would leave the company at a severe disadvantage, since they would have most of the liability that comes with being a public company, but lose out on the fundraising benefits of a public offering, said these people. 
 
 Only 13 IPOs have ever been completed with a value greater than $10 billion, and just three of those have been for U.S. companies, according to Dealogic, which tracks new securities issues. The only U.S. issuers at that size level have been Visa Inc. at $19.7 billion in 2008; General Motors Co. at $18.1 billion in 2010; and AT&T Wireless Services Inc. at $10.6 billion in 2000. 
 
 The most valuable company ever to go public was Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, which sold $21.9 billion of stock in October 2006 and finished its first day of trading with a market value of $148 billion, Dealogic said. 
 
 A Facebook offering of $10 billion would be the largest IPO by any technology or Internet company. The largest U.S. Internet IPO, the $1.9 billion sale in 2004 by Google Inc. which valued Google at $23 billion, ranks No. 3 among global Internet IPOs. 
 
 Facebook's revenue is driven by its online advertising business, as big brands rush to the site to interact with consumers through display ads and fan pages. Facebook's world-wide ad revenue is expected to hit $3.8 billion this year, up from $1.86 billion a year earlier, according to data compiled by eMarketer. Facebook's share of display ad revenue in the US is expected to grow to 16.3% in 2011 and 19.5% in 2012, eMarketer found. 
 
 —Randall Smith contributed to this article. 
 
 Write to Shayndi Raice at shayndi.raice@wsj.com ||||| Facebook Vice President of Product Chris Cox delivers a keynote address at Facebook's ''fMC'' global event for marketers in New York City in this February 29, 2012 file photograph. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO | 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc aims to raise about $10.6 billion in Silicon Valley's largest IPO, dwarfing the coming-out parties of tech companies like Google Inc and granting the world's largest social network a market value close to Amazon.com's. 
 
 The eight-year-old social network that began as Mark Zuckerberg's Harvard dorm room project indicated an initial public offering price range of between $28 and $35 a share on Thursday, which would value the company at $77 billion to $96 billion. 
 
 The size of the IPO reflects the company's growth and bullish expectations about its money-making potential as a hub for everything from advertising to commerce. 
 
 "We certainly haven't ever seen a tech IPO on this grandiose a scale," said Lise Buyer, a principal with the IPO advisory firm Class V Group. 
 
 Buyer, who worked on Google's 2004 IPO, said the question about a company "that's already this big and that is raising this much money is how many of the glory days of growth are in the past versus how many are ahead." 
 
 Facebook stands to raise as much as $12 billion at the upper end of its planned range. If an over-allotment or "greenshoe" option is triggered, the company could sweep up a maximum of $13.6 billion, according to a Thursday prospectus. 
 
 Facebook is only getting about half, or $5.6 billion, of the estimated $10.6 billion that it would raise at the midpoint of its planned IPO range. About $4.9 billon will go to some existing shareholders. 
 
 Facebook's stock could begin trading as soon as May 18, according to a road show schedule obtained by Reuters. The offering's price range can be adjusted depending on Wall Street's response during the road show. 
 
 Investors are expected to flock to the highly anticipated IPO, although there have been growing concerns about the social network's longer-term growth and Zuckerberg's majority control. 
 
 Facebook will trade at 13 to 16 times the revenue that GreenCrest Capital analyst Max Wolff believes it will generate this year. By comparison, Google, the world's dominant Internet search engine, currently trades at 5.5 to 6 times expected 2012 revenue, he said. 
 
 Google's valuation was higher when it went public in 2004, though Facebook's IPO valuation is still higher than Google's was back then, Wolff noted. 
 
 But some observers said the rich premium was unlikely to deter investors. 
 
 "People are going to be very comfortable with this valuation," said Sam Schwerin of Millennium Technology Value Partners, which owns Facebook shares worth roughly $200 million. The firm is not selling in the IPO. 
 
 "A price range of $28 to $35 will be a relief to some people who are concerned that they may try to take the highest possible price because of high demand," he said. 
 
 "The amount being raised is noteworthy. Selling stockholders are raising about $5 billion in the IPO, which is a lot." 
 
 Facebook executives are due to hit the road on Monday, presenting their investment case to audiences. They will start in New York, go to other major cities such as Chicago and Boston, and end up on Facebook's home turf in Menlo Park, California, according to the schedule. 
 
 Zuckerberg is expected to participate in the two-week road show, a source has said, although Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Finance Chief David Ebersman will lead the briefings. 
 
 TANTALIZING WALL STREET 
 
 Zuckerberg's involvement in the road show will be key for investors with concerns about Facebook's long-term strategy and money-making potential, said Brian Wieser, an analyst with Pivotal Research Group. 
 
 Zuckerberg's control of the company -- which was underscored when he orchestrated the $1 billion acquisition of mobile app maker Instagram last month -- means that investors need to "get comfortable" with the 27-year-old CEO, said Wieser. 
 
 Last week, Facebook reported its first quarter-to-quarter revenue slide in at least two years, a sign that the social network's sizzling growth may be cooling just as it prepares to go public. Some observers have also flagged the company's lack of revenue on mobile devices such as smartphones as an area of concern. 
 
 Dressed in a gray t-shirt and jeans, the copper-haired Zuckerberg appeared in a 31-minute road show video posted online on Thursday. In the video, Zuckerberg predicted that in five years almost every software app would be integrated with Facebook. 
 
 Facebook generated the lion's share of its $3.7 billion in revenue last year from online advertising. It also collects fees when consumers use its special Credits currency to purchase virtual goods in social games such as Zynga's Farmville. The company has said it may expand the use of its payment business beyond games. 
 
 Facebook, which plans to list its stock on the Nasdaq under the ticker "FB", has long tantalized investors with the prospect of a mega IPO. 
 
 As a private company, shares of Facebook have traded briskly in secondary markets for the past couple of years, as investors sought to get a piece of the fast-growing company ahead of its expected IPO. 
 
 The IPO price range indicated in Facebook's filing on Thursday would value the company a hair below the level it has traded at in the secondary markets in recent months, with some trades valuing the company at slightly more than $100 billion. 
 
 But some investors think Facebook, which touts 900 million users worldwide, is setting itself a fairly conservative target. 
 
 "The price range may be tactical. They will likely walk the range up," Schwerin argued. 
 
 Facebook plans to sell 337.4 million shares, or 12.3 percent of the company, in the offering. The capital-raising target far outstrips big Internet IPOs that came before it. Google raised just shy of $2 billion in 2004, while last year Groupon tapped investors for $700 million and Zynga raked in $1 billion. 
 
 At the top end of the IPO range, Facebook would rival the market value of Amazon.com and Cisco Systems Inc, which are worth just over $100 billion, and surpass the combined market value of older technology companies Hewlett-Packard Co and Dell Inc. 
 
 Among existing shareholders, the largest seller in the IPO will be venture capital firm Accel Partners, which will make about $1.2 billion assuming the shares sell at the $31.5 mid-point. Zuckerberg is selling the next largest chunk of shares, worth a little under $1 billion. 
 
 Facebook said that a "substantial majority" of the proceeds from Zuckerberg's stock sale will be used to satisfy taxes he will incur from exercising his options. 
 
 In its prospectus, Facebook said the "lock-up" period, during which employees cannot sell shares after the IPO, would range from 151 days to 181 days. 
 
 Facebook also added two new underwriters, including online broker E*Trade Securities. The broker caters to retail clients who some have speculated may try to pile into the IPO. 
 
 "No doubt Facebook doesn't want to upset the average mom and pop out there," said Craig Huber, research analyst, at independent research firm Huber Research Partners. 
 
 (Writing By Edwin Chan, additional reporting by Poornima Gupta, Gerry Shih and Sarah McBride in San Francisco and Olivia Oran in New York; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Bernadette Baum, Matthew Lewis and Richard Pullin)
– Mark Zuckerberg's little startup filed papers with the SEC today to become a publicly traded company. Some of the Facebook particulars: The company says it plans to raise $5 billion, but that figure is expected to rise to perhaps $10 billion by the time the big day arrives in the spring. (The AP thinks the stock will debut in May.) The Wall Street Journal pegs the company's potential value at between $75 billion and $100 billion. The ticker symbol will be FB, though the filing didn't specify which exchange would be used for trading, notes MarketWatch. The company reported $3.7 billion in revenue in 2011, up from about $2 billion in 2010. Analysts expected $4.3 billion, says the Journal. A Zuckerberg quote from a letter to future shareholders: "We don't build services to make money; we make money to build better services. These days I think more and more people want to use services from companies that believe in something beyond simply maximizing profits." TechCrunch has the full text here. Facebook should shatter the figures from 2004 IPO of Google, which raised $1.9 billion and valued the company at $23 billion. See the filing for yourself here.