Facebook IPO filing shows fast growth

Facebook late Wednesday filed its eagerly awaited registration for an initial public offering, disclosing that it expects to raise $5 billion.

In a regulatory filing with the the Securities and Exchange Commission, the social networking service said it expects to raise $5 billion in the offering. But that amount could rise amid intense investor interest in Facebook's IPO.

Underscoring the company's swift growth, Facebook had net income in 2011 of $1 billion on sales of $3.7 billion, compared with earnings of $606 million on sales of $1.9 billion the previous year, according to the registration statement. 

The company's revenue from advertising last year totaled $3.2 billion, up from $1.9 billion in 2010, Facebook disclosed. Overall, 85 percent of the company's sales came from advertising in 2011, a 10 percent decrease from the previous. Payments revenue amounted to $557 million. Facebook also said it has $3.9 billion in cash. 

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Facebook said it now has 845 million active users, a 39 percent increase from December 31, 2010. Facebook disclosed in its filing:

There are more than two billion global Internet users, according to an industry source, and we aim to connect all of them. We have achieved varying levels of penetration within the population of Internet users in different countries.

For example, in countries such as Chile, Turkey, and Venezuela we estimate that we have penetration rates of greater than 80 percent of Internet users; in countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States we estimate that we have penetration rates of approximately 60 percent; in countries such as Brazil, Germany, and India we estimate that we have penetration rates of approximately 20-30 percent; in countries such as Japan, Russia, and South Korea we estimate that we have penetration rates of less than 15 percent; and in China, where Facebook access is restricted, we have near 0% penetration.

Facebook said it selected Morgan Stanley (MS), Goldman Sachs (GS), and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) as its lead underwriters. Bookrunners for the offering include Bank of America (BAC), Barclays (BARC), and Allen & Co.