The Most Anticipated IPO in Years

Edit: Facebook filed it's papers close to 5 p.m. on Wednesday. Find out what they reveal.

Wednesday might seem like just any other day. Perhaps it’s special because it’s the first of a new month. The day before had closed out a strong January, the best month the stock market had seen since October. But Wednesday marks a day many investors had been waiting giddily for: Facebook is expected to file its IPO.

Business Insider

No one knows exactly when the company will file, but ’s countdown seems to expect the news to hit around noon.

International Financing Review

Since people got wind that the social networking company was considering an IPO, investors have practically been salivating. The company was expecting to raise $10 million, but reported that the number had been dropped to $5 billion, which Facebook could increase it depending on how demand is.

IFR

No matter, Facebook is valued at $75 billion to $100 billion. And reported that trading of Facebook stock on private exchanges has pointed to the valuation being over $80 billion.

Associated Press

"Pandemonium is what I expect in terms of demand for this stock," Scott Sweet, senior managing partner at IPO Boutique, an advisory firm, told .

And people are expecting that when the IPO files, Facebook will have a little surprise up its sleeve. Tech companies filing IPOs have made it a tradition to file some sort of letter. And CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg, who is known for being … nontraditional and cocky, probably won’t be able to resist.

AP

"There is a feeling that there will be something unique in store for Facebook users," Reena Aggarwal, a finance professor who has studied IPOs at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, told .

Although the company will file today, shares won’t begin trading under the stock symbol FB until late May. When the filing process is complete, Facebook is about to make its employees and investors very, very rich.

Going on a best-case scenario where the company is valued at $100 billion (for ease more than anything else), the original four founders of Facebook will be rolling in dough. Zuckerberg will be worth $24 billion; Dustin Moskovitz, the company’s first chief technology officer and then vice president of engineering, will be worth $6 billion; Eduardo Saverin, Facebook’s first chief financial officer and business manager, will be worth $5 billion; and Chris Hughes, the company’s first spokesperson, will be worth $1 billion.

Overall, the Facebook IPO will create more than 1,000 new millionaires, according to Reuters.