Facebook to unveil financials, raises $1.5 billion

FACEBOOK IS preparing to open its books this year or early in 2012 to give investors a glimpse into the financial workings of the world's No. 1social network, after it sealed an oversubscribed $1.5 billion round of financing led byGoldman Sachs.The financing, $1 billion of which is from Goldman Sachs' overseas clients and $500 million from Goldman itself and Russian investment firmDigital Sky Technologies, gives the company a projected value of $50 billion, setting the stage for what could be one of the largest initial public offerings next year.Facebook, founded in aHarvarddorm room in 2004, said it would begin to file public financial reports no later than April 30, 2012, in a statement detailing the new investment.United Statessecurities regulations require companies with more than 499 shareholders to disclose financial information whether they are publicly traded or not.Facebookexpects to exceed that number some time this year.The new funding was organized byinvestment bankGoldman Sachs, which raised $1 billion from non-U.S. investors in a fund thatFacebooksaid was oversubscribed.Goldman Sachsoriginally pitched the investment to U.S. investors, but switched focus to overseas clients as concerns grew thatintense media coveragesurrounding the offering could run afoul of U.S. securities laws.Initial projections fromGoldman Sachsin documents circulated to potential investors earlier this month indicated it was looking to raise up to $1.5 billion.Facebooksaid it made a "business decision" to limit the offering to $1 billion, without explaining further. It said it had no immediate plans for using the money raised. The company earned $355 million in net income in the first nine months of 2010 on revenue of $1.2 billion, according to a document distributed by Goldman Sachsto potential investors earlier this month, the only source of financial data on the company.! In December,Digital Sky Technologies,Goldman Sachsand some funds managed by Goldman invested $500 million inFacebook.Facebookhas more than 500 million users and is challenging bigWeb businesseslikeGoogleInc and Yahoo Inc for users' time online and for advertising dollars.Investors are increasingly eager to buy shares ofFacebookand other fast-growing Internetsocial networkingcompanies on private exchanges.