With the Facebook initial public offering (IPO) now official, industry and financial analysts say that a huge influx of cash could enable the social networking company to topple Google from its dominant position in the online world.
Facebook had been expected to file its IPO papers with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this week, and it did just that late yesterday afternoon. Analysts and potential investors were eagerly awaiting what is one of the largest IPOs in recent years.
With an expected valuation of $100 billion, financial analysts say the IPO is worth about $5 billion. That's a big potential war chest for a company that has been fighting for social networking users and advertising dollars with the largest Internet company on Earth - Google.
Given the popularity of its search engine, along with services and products like Google Maps, Android and Chrome, Google obviously is no slouch: It has 32,000 employees around the world and $37.86 billion in annual revenue. That's $1.166 million per employee in revenue.
But Facebook, with just 3,000 employees, pulls in $3.8 billion in revenue; that's $1.8 million in revenue per employee.
"Facebook has 800 million users," noted Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group. "How many companies have 800 million anything? The thing that's interesting is that Facebook is profitable and solidly profitable. And an IPO is a huge step for any company, but it's the validation for Facebook, their business and their social networking model."
Facebook and Google are increasingly in each other's wheel house.
Just this past year, Google launched Google+, its own social network and a new direct competitor to Facebook. (Just last week it made Google+ more available to teens, another move to broaden its appeal.) And Google CEO Larry Page has said he plans to integrate Google+ social features into the company's wide range of services and products.
With a lot of new cash, Facebook could make a lot of moves. Olds wonders whether Facebook would try to buy Yahoo, which has been struggling, or even Twitter.