Investors clamor for Facebook IPO

MENLO PARK, Calif. – Wall Street is about to get Facebook fever.

The social networking giant with nearly 1 billion users is expected to file papers any day now to sell stock to the public. The timing stems partly from federal rules that would require Facebook Inc. to begin disclosing its financial information in April because of its phenomenal growth.

Beyond minting an estimated 1,000 new millionaires at the company, Facebook’s initial public stock offering could provide a huge boost to Wall Street investment banks sorely in need of a hot stock to excite investors. The right to manage the IPO will also generate an estimated $250 million in fees.

“This will be the largest IPO of the year for sure and probably of the decade,” said Max Wolff, senior analyst at GreenCrest Capital Management in New York.

Facebook Inc. is expected to raise $10 billion in the offering, giving it a market capitalization of $100 billion. Google Inc., by comparison, raised $1.9 billion in its IPO in 2004.

Shares of Google skyrocketed on their opening day, and analysts expect Facebook shares to do the same.

“The minute the IPO is filed, there will be pandemonium,” said IPO Boutique’s Scott Sweet, who says he has never seen anything quite like the pent-up demand for Facebook shares. “And this is coming from someone who has seen extremely hot IPOs. I have seen pandemonium.”