Facebook to raise $5bn in IPO

Facebook is expected to raise $5bn during its highly awaited Initial Public Offering in 2012. The IPO is expected to turn several key shareholders into billionaires overnight, including founder Mark Zuckerberg who is rumoured to land a $1.5bn tax bill should the deal go through. The company is now valued between $75bn and $100bn. This is impressive for a company that has only recently begun to make profits having reported $1bn profit last year on revenues of $3.7bn.  Facebook is reported to have 161 million active users in the US alone.

Facebook is the number one online advertising company in the world and is forecast to generate $7bn advertising revenue by 2013. The IPO is particularly interesting as Facebook will be required to release details of its business which has until now been kept a closely guarded secret. This will be the second largest internet IPO in history after Google.