to move up and down
Facebook files for US$5-billion IPO
Facebook Inc. founder Mark Zuckerberg wants to change the world, conquer Wall Street and usher in a new dawn for Silicon Valley, just don’t expect him to relinquish any control over his company along the way.
Wednesday afternoon, the 27-year-old Mr. Zuckerberg laid out in black and white his mission statement for how Facebook will revolutionize human interaction on the Internet, in full public view for the first time, as the Palo Alto, California-based company finally announced plans to hold a US$5-billion initial public offering (IPO).
For Mr. Zuckerberg, the filing represents the culmination of a journey that began almost exactly eight years ago when he created a social networking site known as “The Facebook” in his Harvard University dorm room, and has seen him become the target of high profile lawsuits, the subject of a Hollywood biopic and the youngest billionaire on the planet.
If the offering hits the higher end of its range — valuing the company at about US$100-billion — Mr. Zuckerberg would be worth more than $28-billion, making him one of the ten richest people in the world. Facebook’s IPO also portends to turns thousands of its employees into millionaires, and several into billionaires, and further solidifies the social networking giant as one of the key power brokers in the digital age.
With more than 845 million active users each month, Facebook is the default home on the Web for nearly 14% of the world’s population and one of a handful of companies — along with Apple Inc., Google Inc. and Twitter Inc. — in a position to shape the future of the social Web and reap the benefits of the billions of advertising dollars flowing onto the Internet each year. (Photo: Scott Eells/Bloomberg)
The next generation of Rain Men: Characters with Asperger’s are increasingly played for TV laughs, but they’ve come a long way since Dustin Hoffman’s day. (Illustration by Steve Murray)
Check out our full visual archive.
