Facebook Files for a $5 Billion IPO

The company specifically named Twitter and Google+ as potential threats to its future.

Facebook filed its is S-1 paperwork for an initial public offering Wednesday and for the first time giving a look into its revenues and where the company is going.

The company filed its S-1 paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under the symbol "FB" for a $5 billion IPO.

The filing shows that Mark Zuckerberg owns 28.4 percent of the company and it brought in $3.7 billion in revenue.

Digging deeper, the filing reveals that Facebook had 483 million daily active users in December 2011 and it is trying to diversify its revenue stream by decreasing its reliance on advertising.

About 85 percent of the company's revenue comes from advertising but a growing amount coming from Facebook payments. The company's advertising used to account for upwards of 98 percent of its revenue.

Facebook also listed a series of potential risks on the horizon. In its filing, Facebook highlighted about 50 risk factors for the company.

The risks center on the possibility of using some of its more than 800 million users and a potential decline in advertising.

Facebook also pointed to Google+ and Twitter as potential risks to its business.

The filing also means Facebook will trade shares of its social-networking company in the coming months, possibly as early as Mary.

The S-1 is the first step a private company takes with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to sell shares on the open market.

Shares of the Menlo Park-based company will not actually go on sale Wednesday.

Instead Facebook's filing will serve as a prospectus for potential investors who haven't had the opportunity to buy shares on the costly secondary market.

 

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