Facebook is expected to submit paperwork to regulators on Wednesday, February 1 for a $5 billion initial public offering and has selected Morgan Stanley and four other bookrunners to handle the mega-IPO, sources close to the deal said, according to Reuters.
The company founded by Mark Zuckerberg in a Harvard dorm room in 2004 picked Morgan Stanley to take the coveted "lead left" role in what is expected to be the largest IPO ever to emerge from Silicon Valley.
The $5 billion is a preliminary target and could be ramped up in coming months in response to investor demand.
The other four bookrunners chosen were Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital and JP Morgan, although the underwriting syndicate could be expanded later.
The preliminary IPO filing sets the stage for a May market of the world's largest social network, a coming-out party that will dwarf almost any before that, including Google Inc's $2 billion IPO.
The prospective IPO – expected to be one of the largest U.S. market debuts in history – has whipped up a frenzy of investor and media speculation this month, buoying shares in social media peers from RenRen to LinkedIn and igniting fierce competition on Wall Street.
