Facebook to file for IPO next week

What could become the mother of all public offerings will formally get underway as early as Wednesday, reports the WSJ, citing sources. The company is currently looking at a valuation of $75 billion to $100 billion. It would take several months before Facebook actually becomes a public company.

Facebook's IPO, which people familiar with the matter earlier said could raise as much as $10 billion, has been hotly anticipated as a defining moment for the latest Web investing boom. The Menlo Park, Calif. social-networking company, which has more than 800 million members, has changed the way people interact with each other and share information on the Internet.

The filing is also being eagerly anticipated in Sacramento because of the additional tax revenues that will be generated from the many people who are about to become rich (at least 1,000 new millionaires).