Facebook Goes Public

Facebook completed a long-anticipated move on Wednesday by officially going public.

In its regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Facebook said that it hopes to raise $5 billion in its initial public offering. That would be the most-ever for an Internet IPO since Google raised $1.9 billion in 2004. The Menlo Park-based company is expected to make its stock-market debut in the next three of four months, under the ticker symbol “FB.”

The documents show that Facebook earned $668 million on revenue of $3.7 billion last year, with both figures nearly doubling from 2010.

California lawmakers said the IPO could also be a potential windfall for the state, possibly bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue.

But now, the company will also face plenty of added scrutiny by going public, with shareholders expected to look closely at each move the company makes in an effort to continue to grow each quarter.

What’s still unclear is what, if anything, will change for the more than 800 million Facebook users in coming years.

It's simple. Keith Mizuguchi loves to write and write and write some more. After taking a hiatus from the journalism business, he has rekindled his passion for writing over the last two years, holding a job as both a web and on-air writer for San Francisco news radio station KCBS. While he enjoys the news business, his true passions are twofold: sports and food. Bay Area born and raised, he lives in San Jose, commutes to SF and loves every minute of it. You can follow his food adventures on Twitter @foodie_keith.