Facebook Has a Giant Pile of Cash on Hand

Facebook Has a Giant Pile of Cash on Hand

Facebook is really, really rich. You knew that, though, right? But no. They're way richer than you thought: Projecting a cool billion in profits this year and after raising another billion from Goldman Sachs, Facebook now has $3.5 billion in cash, and no deficits. Gawker got its hands on the company's swollen financial records a source gave to Gawker's Ryan Tate, and the numbers are really impressive, putting the company in a financial league with eBay, Yahoo, and 3M, Tate reports, and setting it up to start making some serious acquisitions. A couple other interesting points: The company's profits have grown exponentially, quadrupling what it made just two years ago -- "it's the sort of hoard other tech companies spend decades accumulating," Tate writes. And Mark Zuckerberg owns 24 percent of all that loot. However, not everyone is impressed. Business Insider's Nicholas Carlson writes that the $2.5 billion in revenues through the first three quarters of 2011 is not keeping pace with industry expectations. "Facebook was supposed to generate about $4 billion in revenue this year and make $2 billion in EBIDTA," Carlson writes. "Through three quarters, Facebook's revenues – according to this source – only came in at $2.5 billion." Of course, since Facebook is not (yet) a public company and doesn't release revenue numbers (that's why Tate's report is getting so much attention) it's not clear whose "expectations" Carlson is referring to.

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