Facebook IPO reported near

Just as its stratospheric growth curve has started to show early signs of Earth's gravitational pull, Facebook is said to have decided to go public.

Earlier today, CNBC reported that Facebook could file its S-1 to the SEC in October. The same story also maintains that its No. 2 exec, Sheryl Sandberg, has been meeting with banks to determine whether their retail divisions can help create new products for Facebook users, as well as determine whether they have good reach into China. The CNBC report cites sources suggesting that Facebook's IPO valuation could be around $100 billion, which, believe it or not, is considered to be a low-ball estimate.

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Regardless of the timing of a future public offering, Facebook has particular interest in China precisely because of the company's extraordinary success signing up users. To the degree that it can replicate that sort of success in on the other side of the Pacific, Facebook would be able to compensate for any slowdown in its growth rate in the U.S. and Europe.

The publication "Inside Facebook" wrote that the social network lost nearly 6 million users in May in the U.S.. as well as losses in the U.K, Russia, and Norway. Following the posting of that report, Facebook issued a statement (posted by AllThingsD to the effect that everything remains hunky-dory.

"From time to time, we see stories about Facebook losing users in some regions. Some of these reports use data extracted from our advertising tool, which provides broad estimates on the reach of Facebook ads and isn't designed to be a source for tracking the overall growth of Facebook," according to the statement.

For now, the company's debut date as a public firm remains in the realm of speculation - as is the unanswered question whether  investors will think twice about paying top dollar if Facebook's global growth moderates. Or does that even matter as the Second Internet bubble continues to inflate?