IPO To Put Facebook in Google's Company

It's certain to be a whopper of an IPO.

By now, thanks to the likes of search engine king Google, the news has spread throughout the galaxy: Facebook, an Internet icon that has revolutionized the primordial concept of socializing with "friends," is planning to become a public company. That's according to The Wall Street Journal, which has reported that the company with about 800 million active users could file documents for an IPO as early as this week.

Sources have told the venerated paper that Facebook could raise up to $10 billion, which could value the social network between $75 billion and $100 billion. That would give Facebook an ample pile of cash to help fend off competition from rivals like Google and put it in the same Big League ballpark as the search engine giant, which boasts a market value in excess of $147 billion.

Google may take comfort in the fact that it has a more impressive bottom line: It posted a 2011 profit of $9.7 billion on revenues of $37.9 billion. Sources recently told CNBC's Julia Boorstin that Facebook reported 2011 revenues of $3.8 billion and an operating profit of $1.5 billion.

Facebook, however, would have bragging rights if it can manage to raise $10 billion. Google's public debut in 2005 didn't even raise a paltry $2 billion, according to Mashable, which reported that Facebook's $10 billion offering would be the largest tech IPO in history ahead of a $5.9 billion IPO in 2000 by Infineon, a German company.

The fact is these are all impressive numbers: I cannot fathom what a million bucks looks like much less $10 billion.