New York Times - Facebook recently began to make moves towards becoming a publicly traded company. This marks another phase for the social media giant, which was first created in a Harvard dormitory room eight years ago. The stock sales, if allowed to happen, will be the largest initial public trading ever.
Facebook has more than 800 million users globally. The filing issued stated Facebook's intention to raise $5 billion. The ticker has been registered as "FB," but no exchange has yet been listed.
Privately, many insiders have said that Facebook's actual goal is to raise close to $100 billion. If it's able to achieve such a number, the company will achieve a size and scale much larger than many longer-established American companies.
