Facebook IPO set to create 1,000 millionaires

Facebook is expected to launch a blockbuster initial public offering soon, which could create at least 1,000 millionaires, according to Reuters.

The highly anticipated stock market debut is expected to value Facebook at as much as $100 billion, which is higher than just about any of Silicon Valley's most celebrated companies, from Netscape to Google.

Facebook, which was founded in a Harvard dorm room in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and his friends, has become the world's biggest social network with over 800 million members and revenue of $1.6bn in the first half of 2011.

Early venture capital investors such as Accel Partners, Greylock Partners and Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel, as well as Facebook's earliest employees, who were given ownership stakes, will see the biggest paydays from the IPO. Zuckerberg, 27, is estimated to own a little over a fifth of the company.

Facebook engineers, sales people and other staff are also likely to receive benefits from the IPO as they are given equity-based compensation as well as a salary.

Facebook's now employs over 3,000 people, up from 700 in 2008.

According to Reuters, people familiar with Facebook say that even by conservative estimates there are likely to be well over a thousand people looking at million-dollar-plus paydays after the company goes public.