Facebook surrenders its privacy in IPO documents

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook is baring its business soul.

The unveiling came late Wednesday when the company that depends on people to share their lives online filed its plans to raise $5 billion in an initial public offering of stock. It's a revelatory moment that prospective investors, curious competitors and nosy reporters have been awaiting for two years. During that time, Facebook established itself as a communications hub and emerged as a threat to the Internet's most powerful company, Google Inc.

As with almost anything crafted by a bunch of lawyers and bankers, the 197-page prospectus that Facebook filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is filled with boilerplate legalese and mind-numbing numbers.
But there were some juicy details in there, too.

Above all, the documents confirmed what everyone had been hearing: Facebook is very profitable and getting stronger. The company Mark Zuckerberg started with some friends in 2004 has seen its annual revenue soar from $777 million in 2009 to $3.7 billion last year. Facebook's earnings have grown at a similar rate too, ballooning from $122 million in 2009 to $668 million last year.

Facebook ended 2011 with $3.9 billion in cash. That's a relatively small amount compared to the nearly $45 billion that Google has in the bank.

Facebook's prosperity has been fueled by a steady expansion of its audience, making its website a more attractive marketing vehicle for ads, which account for most of the company's revenue. Facebook ended last year with 845 million users, up 39 percent from 608 million at the end of 2010. Those users share their interests and preferences prodigiously. Facebook recorded a daily average of 2.7 billion "likes" and comments during the final three months of last year.

Facebook has become so addictive that more than half its audience — 483 million users — log in every day.

Facebook's revenue total disappointed some people who pored through the documents. One reason: The company generates about $4.39 in revenue per user. "That is a surprisingly low number," said University of Notre Dame finance professor Tim Loughran, who studies IPOs. Google's annual revenue of nearly $38 billion works out to more than $30 per user of its services.

"Facebook needs to find more ways to get revenue from their users," Loughran said.

Facebook listed its most promising expansion opportunities as Brazil, Germany, India, Japan, Russia and South Korea. The company, based in Menlo Park, Calif., eventually hopes to make its service available in China if it can navigate rules requiring online content to be censored if the Chinese government considers it to be objectionable or obscene.

The IPO filing gives some clue when Facebook is likely to surpass 1 billion users. If it can add users at roughly the same pace as last year, Facebook should surpass the 1 billion mark this summer.

As it is, Facebook already generates 44 percent of its revenue outside the U.S. The company is also developing other sources of revenue beyond online advertising faster than Google. Advertising accounted for 85 percent of Facebook's revenue last year. It made up 96 percent of Google's. Facebook's other revenue sources include the 30 percent cut of sales it takes from game makers and other external applications companies that sell things on its website.

The big question is whether Facebook's numbers are impressive enough to fetch the lofty IPO price. It's still too early in the process for Facebook to reveal how much it intends to ask for its shares, but Wednesday's filing provides some clues. Facebook valued its Class B common stock at $29.73 at the end of December, down slightly from appraisals of $30.07 in June and September. If this unfolds like most hot IPOs, Facebook will probably try to sell its shares at a premium. That could mean an IPO price in the $35 to $40 range. Investor demand, though, ultimately will dictate the pricing.

Facebook still hasn't listed how many outstanding shares it has, but the documents make it possible to make a rough estimate of the company's market value at the end of last year. Financial notes in the filing show Facebook calculated it had about 2.9 billion fully diluted shares at the end of December. That works out to a market value of about $86 billion, based on Facebook's $29.73-per-share self-appraisal.

At that price, the nearly 534 million shares that the 27-year-old Zuckerberg owns are worth about $16 billion. The filing indicates Zuckerberg will sell an unspecified number of shares in the IPO to cover a tax bill for exercising a stock option to buy 120 million shares. Zuckerberg has been collecting a $500,000 salary but that will fall to one dollar next year at his own request, according to the filing.

Other big winners in the IPO include: Facebook co-founder and old Zuckerberg friend, Dustin Moskovitz, who owns nearly 134 million shares; venture capital firm Accel Partners, which owns 201 million shares; Russian investor DST Global Ltd., which owns 131 million shares; and former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel, who owns nearly 45 million shares.

Hundreds of other Facebook employees could become millionaires because they receive stock as part of their compensation. Facebook has about 3,200 employees now, nearly 2,000 more than it did two years ago.

Facebook also shared some of its biggest worries in the filing. Among other things, it cited Google's ability to use its dominance in Internet search to promote its Google Plus social network. Facebook also frets the possibility that regulators in Europe and the U.S. may impose tougher privacy rules that would make it more difficult for the company to stockpile information about its users.

Reference:Yahoo News

IVK: First Anti-Virus ever created in Pakistan

CES Will Be Thick With Thin Ultrabooks

                       

         Ultrabooks appear to be the anointed star product category of CES 2012. The super thin notebook computers are being pushed by Intel as well as several of its hardware partners. Ultrabooks emphasize design, performance and a degree of affordability, but will consumers bite?

Ultrabooks will make a strong showing at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), to be held in Las Vegas Jan. 10-13, with Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) and several computer vendor partners demoing products.

"The new category is already gaining momentum, with many Ultrabooks powered by second-generation Intel Core processors in the market today, and more than 60 designs already under way for 2012," Intel spokesperson Becky Emmett told TechNewsWorld.
"[Ultrabooks] are an attractive product and very portable," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. "The intention is to push them [into the] mainstream."
"The shipment of Windows 8 ... will put tablet features into Ultrabook-like products, and tablets may become redundant," Enderle suggested.
People "don't want to carry multiple large devices," and Ultrabooks will gain tablet-like features such as touch, Enderle explained.

What's an Ultrabook?

Intel announced the Ultrabook category at Computex in Taipei in May, and it has trademarked the term.
Ultrabooks are intended to be less than 0.8 inches (21 mm) thin and are priced at levels Intel describes as "mainstream."
The first Ultrabooks, based on second-generation Intel Core processors, nicknamed "Sandy Bridge," hit the market in 2011. Many Ultrabooks to be announced at CES 2012 will be powered by the third-generation Intel Core processor, nicknamed "Ivy Bridge." They will be availability in systems in Spring, Intel's Emmett said.
These will be followed in 2013 by Ultrabooks powered by the fourth-generation Intel Core processor, nicknamed "Haswell," Emmett stated.

To the Bridge

Ivy Bridge processors are the first to incorporate Intel's 3D Tri-Gate transistor. This transistor uses three gates wrapped around the silicon channel in three dimensions, making for high performance and energy efficiency.
The 3D Tri-Gate transistors use Intel's 22nm Atom microarchitecture. Future system on a chip (SoC) products based on these transistors will come in at below 1 mW of idle power.
SoCs (systems on a chip) integrate all components of an electronic system, such as a computer, into one chip. They may include digital, analog, and mixed-signal functions, as well as a graphics processing unit.

Marketing Sizzle or Real Muscle?

Demand for Ultrabooks has reportedly been weak. Acer and Asus, which both launched the first generation of these devices in 2011, apparently had to slash orders by 40 percent because of this.
"This is a price-sensitive market, and neither vendor did much marketing," Enderle told TechNewsWorld. "The market won't move to Ultrabooks unless motivated to do so by strong marketing or a more attractive price."
Manufacturers of the first generation of Ultrabooks, which debuted in 2011, had reportedly refused to begin work until Intel increased subsidies from a US$300 million Ultrabook Fund that Intel Capital had set up in August to help boost work on Ultrabooks.
They apparently needed the boost to keep prices under the $1,000 mark.
However, reports that Intel is offering a subsidy for Ultrabooks are "completely false," company spokesperson Emmett stated.
"We are working very closely with our customers to ensure that Ultrabooks deliver a compelling and unique value proposition to customers," Emmett said. Intel will "focus [its] global marketing resources on the creation, growth and acceleration of the new category."
The Ultrabook Fund's purpose is to "invest in companies building hardware and software technologies focused on enhancing how people interact with Ultrabooks," according to Intel.
Buying habits show "there is a need and desire for high-performance mobile devices at many price points," Emmett suggested.
Strong marketing "can get people to buy upmarket if they find the product compelling, and Ultrabooks have this potential," Enderle remarked.
However, as a parts maker, Intel "isn't well positioned to market a product because [it] can't focus down on [a device from any one manufacturer]," Enderle pointed out.
Ultrabooks could comprise eight percent of the notebook market in 2012, Brian Marshall, an analyst at the ISI Group, predicted in a note to investors in December.

Youngest MCP, Pakistan's pride Arifa shows some signs of life

Arifa Karim, Pakistan's pride who became world's youngest Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) at 9 in 2004 continues to be in critical condition in death's icy hands at CMH hospital in Lahore since she suffered cardiac arrest on December 22. On Friday night, however, Arifa showed signs of life. When her brain showed some brain activity and the twichted her fingers.

3G Launch in Pakistan

                          As all we Pakistani's are eagerly waiting for 3G service is Pakistan. We have good news that we are gonna have it by the end of March or by start of April. The Pakistantoday.com says it like
"According to official sources, the Ministry of Information Technology has completed all formalities and procedures of the license auction. Sources further told that the auction may take a few months after it would be announced formally by the government and bidding is expected to be completed by the second week of March 2012. There will be three licenses auctioned to the operators that would participate in the bidding process, sources added.
It is also informed that participating operators may be new contestants besides those already operating in the country. The 3G auction has been focused by the economic policymakers for the last couple of years and it is believed that telecom sector through advancement of technology will bring handsome foreign direct investment (FDI). This will not only boost economy activities in the country but it will be helpful to support the deteriorating economy of the country. "