Fact-Challenged Facebook Book Not Making Many Friends

Experts offer healthy dose of skepticism

(NEWSER) - After Facebook's IPO filing on Wednesday, analysts are abuzz over a suggested $75 billion to $100 billion valuation. If the social network is to live up to the hype, it'll have to be "the next Google—or better," experts tell MSNBC . Opinions from around the web:

• Sure, 845 million active monthly users and $3 billion in yearly revenue is nothing to sniff at. But a $75 billion valuation would make Facebook worth 40% of Google, whose profits are 11 times the social network's—whose growth may already be slowing, MSNBC notes.

Mark Zuckerberg flies private, and other revelations

(NEWSER) - Facebook has officially filed its 150-page S-1 with the SEC, which means a boatload of new details about the company are officially out in the open. Some things you didn't know before, but do now, by way of the Los Angeles Times , Huffington Post , and New York Times :

• Mark Zuckerberg's annual salary will fall to $1 in 2013, a la Steve Jobs, but this year he'll collect a $600,000 salary, an increase of $100,000 over last year. (Of course, salary, schmalary: He could be worth as much as $28 billion after the IPO; this year's salary is .002% of that amount.)

Mark Zuckerberg and his company aren't used to 'primetime scrutiny'

(NEWSER) - Facebook is finally on its way to becoming a public company, but are Mark Zuckerberg and crew prepared for what that truly means? Guardian columnist (and Newser founder) Michael Wolff has his doubts. "I don't think that Facebook, with its messianic ambitions and squirrelly zeal, is actually ready for the harsh light of public company life," he writes. "It has grown up in such a bubble of cultishness and doctrine, that primetime scrutiny could shortly become very uncomfortable." As a private company, Facebook has been able to stay largely "tightlipped" about everything from financing to privacy policies to its "data thirst." No more. More»

Filing 'an American milestone'

(NEWSER) - The company Mark Zuckerberg founded in his dorm room eight years ago is expected to file for Silicon Valley's biggest-ever initial public offering today. The Facebook IPO will aim to raise $5 billion, and will value the company at between $75 billion and $100 billion, insiders tell Reuters . The filing paves the way for the stock to start trading in May, and many observers expect a twist, possibly involving a way in for Facebook's 800 million users. "Pandemonium is what I expect in terms of demand for this stock," an IPO expert tells AP . "I don't think Wall Street would want to anger Facebook users." More»

He wants his company to be a blue-chip business

(NEWSER) - With Facebook's IPO on the way, Mark Zuckerberg is looking to the future. Over the past year and a half, the site's CEO has worked toward a more mature company, reports the Wall Street Journal . He's seeking blue-chip status and beyond. "There was a period in Microsoft's evolution where they said, we want to put a computer on everyone's desk," he tells the newspaper. "That's the way that I want to run Facebook," with a "longer vision of where we think the world should be." More»