Megaupload Limited

Although this is a bit outdated I thought it would be noteworthy to share a story that was shared to me by Aaron Wilson, of GONOB Radio. 

"Megaupload Limited is best known for its closed websites including the top-15 file hosting service megaupload.com, an online Hong-Kong-based company established in 2005 that ran a number of online services related to file storage and viewing. The domain names were seized and the sites shut down by the U.S Justice Department on January 19, 2012, following an indictment and arrest o the owners for allegedly operating as an organization dedicated to copyright infringement (i..e. Youtube/Google surely never does this). $330 million-worth assets were frozen by the Customs and Excise Department of Hong Kong."  (SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA). 

Dow Jones Highest Since May 2008

The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 13,005.12 Tuesday, its first close above 13,000 since May 19, 2008. The Dow is within reach of the all-time high of 14,164.53 it reached on Oct. 9, 2007.




http://richardrowell.blogspot.com/2011/08/8411-did-goolsbee-stewart-go-short-day.html

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/28/4298131/the-dows-path-from-here-to-a-record.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/28/4298131/the-dows-path-from-here-to-a-record.html#storylink=cpy

Douglass Lodmell vs. Bob Chapman

     

This is chart shows the price of gold between Feb.2011 - Feb. 2012.

   

      Due to the fact the United States debt is denominated in dollars (i.e. irrespective of printing out a large quantity of Federal Reserve notes). In a deflationary spiral, normal supply and demand economics would suggest that as mortgagees, debtors, consumers, renters, and other Average-Americans without trusts or investments would be in a position of chasing less assets, become unable to pay for existing assets, and be subject to several unforeseen liabilities. As a result, less money will be raised while bidding for products. Prices then fall as a result. However, products of necessity, for example like Food & Energy, may be consumed disproportionately higher per-capita, thus, commodities like Food & Energy, may inflate simultaneously.

      Douglass Lodmell, an Asset Protection Attorney from Florida, supports this deflationary trend. His website is available at http://www.lodmell.com/. <See the November 2011 interview above> His Youtube Channel is available at http://www.youtube.com/douglasslodmell. 
    Here is an essential overview of how the Fractional-Reserve-Banking System works. There is a U.S. Treasury, a Federal Reserve, and a printing-press. The Bureau of Engraving & Printing, prints the Federal Reserve Notes, on paper. This is denominational. Think of the printing-press as a debt-distributor, that must only represent, at all times, a fraction of the total real value of the monetary system. Let's break down Fractional-Reserve-Lending.
     Fraction-Reserve-Lending, requires loans from the central banking system, or a bank. A loan represents something lent out or furnished to a borrower on the condition of being returned at interest. When $1,000 is on deposit, the Federal Reserve Bank, or banks, have the full authority to loan out an additional $9,000 to the recipient/slave.  
    Why do you think there is so much emphasis by the ECB & FR, on making credit available? Why is it always so difficult to continuously expand the money supply? "Expanding the money supply," is just a euphemism for increasing "debt-distribution to the borrower." In any Fractional-Reserve-System, increasing "debt-distribution to the borrower" must result in increasing credit for the lender.  Any money creation, under a Fractional-Reserve-System, requires a loan from a bank, and under this system, money can only be created, if it is loaned out. Remember, you cannot create a loan without Goods & Services, but you can create Goods & Services, without a loan
      The U.S. Treasury is an entirely separate entity from the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States. The Federal Reserve is independent within the government, and its Board of Governors, are chosen by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. It's monetary policy decisions, in distinction to the U.S. Treasury's decisions, do not have to be approved by any executive, judicial, or legislative branch.

     In a recent interview, Jeffrey Verndon, an Asset Protection Attorney, with over 30 years of experience discusses the virtriolic reactions and behaviors of many of his clients. Verndon stated that, since the 2008 Economic Recession, we are now dealing with a "bigger and broader impact of lawsuits" from people trying to recapture what assets they have left. Both Lodmell and Verndon believe there will be an inevitable economic "reset" in some form or mode, possibly prolonging pain, or introducing a new unknown form of prolonged pain -- analogous to the 2008 Economic Recession and its emanations. 

    Doug Lodmell, an Asset Protection Attorney, J.D, explains that the U.S. "has seen the largest mini-default on record in Jefferson County, Alabama, for 3 billion dollars" the filing of which occurred (See: http://reason.org/blog/show/jefferson-county-al-declares-bankru).

    
     On September 2, 2011, Bob Chapman appeared on the Alex Jones Show and mistakenly predicted that gold would reach $3,200 by the end of February 2012. Today is February 22, 2012 and the current KITCO quote is $1,755.10 with a closing price in NYSE, February 21, 2012 of $1,760.30.

     

     Absent a catastrophing, or catalyzing event, like a New Pearl Harbor, I reasonably suspect that Mr. Chapman has made a grave error. While Lodmell receives a grade of A-, Chapman has been downgraded to a grade of C-. He receives a C- rating instead of an F rating because of the "Gold Chart Last 10 Years" graph.

Feb 17, 2012 - GONOB Radio Interviews Santos Bonacci

25 Million Tons of Debris Floating Toward U.S. Shores

Written By Jeremy A. Kaplan

Published February 15, 2012

FoxNews.com

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/02/15/25-million-tons-tsunami-debris-floating-toward-us-shores/#ixzz1mc5dLiFQ

     Wrecked cars, portions of homes, boats, furniture and more -- all swept up by the destructive, magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck off the coast of Japan 11 months ago -- are on a slow-motion collision course with California.

But no one's tracking the debris, Jim Churnside, a physicist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency's (NOAA) Marine Debris Program, told FoxNews.com. 

"It would be really nice, but it’s really difficult," Churnside expained. 

The wreckage from the March 11, 2011, disaster could include virtually anything that floats, according to oceanographer and beachcomber Curtis Ebbesmeyer -- and that includes portions of houses, boats, ships, furniture, cars and even human remains.  Independent models constructed by the NOAA and the University of Hawaii show a vast, loose debris field drifting inexorably toward Hawaii, California and Washington -- the first fishing buoys reached the West Coast in mid December, Ebbesmeyer wrote in his "Beachcombers Alert" newsletter. The flotsam is expected to increase, with the bulk of the debris hitting some time in 2014.  "I would not be surprised to see some fishing vessels by April, and the main mass of debris start arriving a year from this March," Ebbesmeyer told FoxNews.com.Beyond that, it's hard to say exactly how big the debris is -- or even where the majority of it is. 

"After the tsunami, the debris was closely clumped together," Churnside told FoxNews.com. "After storms and over time, those [clumps] kind of get broken up. I don’t think there’s going to be much that’s visible from satellites right now." High resolution satellite cameras could pick up the scattered remains -- the houses and cars, the ruined fishing boats and oil drums. But setting such a camera to exhaustively scan the vastness of the Pacific Ocean would be tedious and expensive, he noted.

"There’s no good efficient way to do it," Churnside said, "just because it’s spread out by now over such a huge area." Floating debris travels at about 7 mph, Ebbesmeyer said, but it can move as much as 20 mph if it has a large area exposed to the wind, according to a report in the Associated Press. That said, Churnside expects models of the debris path from last summer are probably accurate. 

The debris is not expected to be radioactive. Carey Morishige, the Pacific Islands Regional Coordinator for the NOAA Marine Debris Program, told science blog Earthsky.org that radioactivity is probably not an issue, since the tsunami carried most of the debris seaward before the failure of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor. "All debris should be treated with a great reverence and respect," Ebbesmeyer told the AP. Churnside plans to revisit his models of the enormous debris field next month, one year after the devasting event.

February 13, 2012, 10:32 PM

Why Don’t Americans Elect Scientists?

By JOHN ALLEN PAULOS

Wolfgang Kumm/Pool, via ReutersAngela Merkel touring an exhibit in 2009 that showed different trends in science.

I’ve visited Singapore a few times in recent years and been impressed with its wealth and modernity. I was also quite aware of its world-leading programs in mathematics education and naturally noted that one of the candidates for president was Tony Tan, who has a Ph.D. in applied mathematics. Tan won the very close election and joined the government of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who also has a degree in mathematics.

China has even more scientists in key positions in the government. President Hu Jintao was trained as a hydraulic engineer and Premier Wen Jiabao as a geomechanical engineer. In fact, eight out of the nine top government officials in China have scientific backgrounds. There is a scattering of scientist-politicians in high government positions in other countries as well. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has a doctorate in physical chemistry, and, going back a bit, Margaret Thatcher earned a degree in chemistry.

One needn’t endorse the politics of these people or countries to feel that given the complexities of an ever more technologically sophisticated world, the United States could benefit from the participation and example of more scientists in government. This is obviously no panacea — Herbert Hoover was an engineer, after all — but more people with scientific backgrounds would be a welcome counterweight to the vast majority of legislators and other officials in this country who are lawyers.

Among the 435 members of the House, for example, there are one physicist, one chemist, one microbiologist, six engineers and nearly two dozen representatives with medical training. The case of doctors and the body politic is telling. Everyone knows roughly what doctors do, and so those with medical backgrounds escape the anti-intellectual charge of irrelevance often thrown at those in the hard sciences. Witness Senator Bill Frist, Gov. Howard Dean and even Ron Paul.

This showing is sparse even with the inclusion of the doctors, but it shouldn’t be too surprising. For complex historical reasons, Americans have long privately dismissed scientists and mathematicians as impractical and elitist, even while publicly paying lip service to them.

One reason is that an abstract, scientific approach to problems and issues often leads to conclusions that are at odds with religious and cultural beliefs and scientists are sometimes tone-deaf to the social environment in which they state their conclusions. A more politically sensitive approach to problems and issues, on the other hand, often leads to positions that simply don’t jibe with the facts, no matter how delicately phrased. Examples as diverse as stem cell research and the economic stimulus abound.

Politicians, whose job is in many ways more difficult than that of scientists, naturally try to sway their disparate constituencies, but the prevailing celebrity-infatuated, money-driven culture and their personal ambitions often lead them to employ rhetorical tricks rather than logical arguments. Both Republicans and Democrats massage statistics, use numbers to provide decoration rather than information, dismiss, or at least distort, the opinions of experts, torture the law of the excluded middle (i.e., flip-flop), equivocate, derogate and obfuscate.

Dinosaurs cavorting with humans, climate scientists cooking up the global warming “hoax,” the health establishment using vaccines to bring about socialism – it’s hard to imagine mainstream leaders in other advanced economies not laughing at such claims.

Often too interested in politics as entertainment, the media is complicit in keeping such “controversies” running. Doing so isn’t hard since vivid, just-so stories and anecdotes usually trump (or should that be Trump) dry, sometimes counterintuitive facts and statistics.

Skepticism enjoins scientists — in fact all of us — to suspend belief until strong evidence is forthcoming, but this tentativeness is no match for the certainty of ideologues and seems to suggest to many the absurd idea that all opinions are equally valid. The chimera of the fiercely independent everyman reigns. What else explains the seemingly equal weight accorded to the statements of entertainers and biological researchers on childhood vaccines? Or to pronouncements of industry lobbyists and climate scientists? Or to economic prescriptions like 9-9-9 and those of Nobel-prize winning economists?

Americans’ grandiose (to use Newt Gingrich’s malapropism) egalitarianism also helps explain why the eight or nine original Republican presidential candidates suffered little for espousing, or at least not clearly opposing, scientifically untenable positions. Jon Huntsman, the only exception, received excessive kudos for what seems a rather lukewarm acceptance of climate change.

To avoid receiving the candidates’ canned responses on these and other issues, I sometimes wish that a debate moderator would forgo a standard question about immigration or jobs and instead ask the candidates to solve a simple puzzle, make an elementary estimate, perform a basic calculation.

Of course, the other side of the “two cultures” chasm should bear some of the onus for this lack of communication between politicians and scientists. Too few scientists are willing to engage in public debates, to explain the relevance of their fields clearly and without jargon, and, in the process, to risk some jeering from a few colleagues. Nevertheless, American scientists do more on this front than those in most other countries.

Perhaps because the words rhyme, it’s sometimes said that attitude is more important than aptitude in helping to bring about innovation, economic progress and social change. The dubious corollary is that freewheeling Americans who question authority and think outside the box have an abundance of attitude that helps make up for a declining performance in science and technology.

Maybe so, but attitude can only go so far. There is certainly no requirement for a Singaporean science background, but scientifically literate government leaders who push for evidence-based policies and demonstrate a scientific outlook are needed more than glib panderers with attitude.

John Allen Paulos, a professor of mathematics at Temple University, is the author of eight books, including “Innumeracy” and “A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper.”

Facebook IPO File Posts Complications

Facebook IPO File Posts Complications for Users and Stocks

By Chase Collum

Staff Writer

As Facebook enters into the quiet period after filing its S-1, a form that announces their plan to become a publically owned company, there is a general sense of lip-licking anticipation in investment circles as the pros and cons of the filing are weighed.

Facebook plans to raise $5 billion from their IPO, but most of the meat to be made on this deal will land in the pockets of original investors, long-time employees and the "one percenters" who will be given first dibs on the stock offering. Though there will be a few bones left to pick once the stock is available to the public, this stock is being rated as a "Do Not Buy" for the average investor by many tech-sector analysts, such as Molly Wood, a contributor to CNet.com.

"There are a lot of reasons investors and financiers are pushing hard for a massive Facebook IPO--reasons that have nothing to do with you and your portfolio," said Wood in her Feb. 1 article entitled "Wall Street needs a win." In the filing that "is estimated to generate some $500 million in fees for the investment banks involved," there is a lot of pressure for big backers to get in early . It is typical for tech stocks to jump drastically in value within the opening hours of trading and remain high for an extended period of trading quarters before falling back to original IPO prices or lower. One exception to this rule is Google, whose stock was originally traded at $85 per share and now, eight-years later is valued at $600. Facebook's projected $5 billion IPO will smash the record set by Google in 2004 when it raised $1.7 billion, but there are some quantitative considerations that should be made, such as the CPM, or cost per mille. This refers to the amount of revenue the company receives for every 1,000 views, or impressions. According to Kenneth C. Wisnefski, founder and CEO of leading search engine optimization and online marketing firm WebiMax, Facebook is way behind the power curve, "earning a mere 22 cents while the industry[CPM] average is around 50 cents and rival Google is earning $2 - $4" according to his Feb. 7 contribution to the International Business Times. 

Richard's Note: Keep in mind that Zynga is 12% of Facebook's Revenue, and after using their internal Zynga Admin. software, I was observing $1500 USD, per minute in revenue. That averages to about 2.2 million in revenue, every 24 hours, with no overhead expenses, observed in the Fall of 2010 and growing daily. Facebook takes a 30% cut from Zynga, and generates a Optimized Sole Cash Inflow, from Facebook Credit fees, which does not include other miscellaneous and transfer fees. Although internet poker applications for example, and other independent game applications are lucrative, there is fierce competition and due to the law of large number, profits may have already peaked for Facebook. This is why they are releasing their IPO in 2012, and not in say 2015. 

"Prior to their IPO, Facebook should invest their resources in to improving CPM and convincing consumers that increasing brand awareness is generating return on investment (versus soaring CPMmargins). Focus on these two areas can help the company improve their positioning and continue to attract attention from marketers and advertisers," said Wisnefski.

Until Facebook figures out how to increase its revenue stream, the company may be overvalued, at least on the trading floor. Although Facebook boasts 845 million active users, many of those users are checking in on mobile devices and through apps. None of these users encounter any ads, and as such, they lower the CPM average for the company quite a bit. In order to raise that number, Facebook will probably look into ways to successfully integrate advertising streams aimed at app users, which leads to the looming question on the minds of the general Facebook public: What does the IPO mean for its registered users, their data, and the interface?

Considering that Facebook is a company that admittedly sells user data as part of its business model (data not available to the actual users in many cases, as a recent court filing in Australia has shown), some users are wary that this practice will intensify once the company has gone public.

It is expected that Facebook will gradually wade into any changes in their advertising schema, since those kinds of changes can be delicate. The last thing Facebook wants to do right now is drive users away because of ill-conceived or intrusive new ad layouts, this according to James Lenz, associate director of the El Paso Finance Center at the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University in his communication with Jill Duffy, a junior analyst at PCMag.com.

"Relationships take time to build, but can quickly be destroyed. There have been recent cases where a company has tried to increase profits by trying to monetize its clients further, and the plan backfired, Netflix being a prime example," said Lentz according to Duffy's Feb. 2 article.

In a letter to investors drafted by Facebook founder and CEO MarkZuckerberg, the intent of the company is to increase its revenue through partnering up with and bringing in advertising revenue from companies that produce goods and services that are "social bydesign."

"We have already helped more than 800 million people map out more than 100 billion connections so far, and…we hope to [use these connections to] improve how people connect to businesses and the economy. We think a more open and connected world will help create a stronger economy with more authentic businesses that build better products and services," said Zuckerberg.

Advertising, though is the main source of revenue, bringing in about 85 percent of the company's annual income according to the IPO filing, it is not the only way that businesses have benefitted from using Facebook. "More than four million businesses have pages on Facebook that they use to have a dialogue with their customers,"Zuckerberg added.

The bottom line is that by filing for IPO, Facebook has set in motion a chain of events that will lead to alternative forms of monetization, and innovative ad campaigns.

Thai Terror: 3 Foreigners Injured in Bangkok Explosion

BREAKING: 2 explosions near school on Sukhumvit Soi 71 injures four, one foreigner got legs blown off.

BREAKING: Explosions at Sukhumvit Soi 71



BANGKOK: -- Two explosions happened in Sukhumvit Soi 71 or Phrakanong, the first one damaging a taxi at Soi Pridi Bhanomyong 31 and injuring the driver and three other people while the second one exploded in front of the Kasem Pittaya School at Soi Pridi Bhanomyong 35.

A foreigner was found with his two legs blown off at the scene of the second explosion.

The road has now been closed off to traffic as police are concerned there may be more bombs hidden in the area. Those living in the area are urged to remain indoors.

All of the injured have been transported to the Kluaynamthai Hospital except for the foreigner who was transported to Chulalongkorn Hospital.

Doctors at Kluaynamthai Hospital said 2 of the injured have ringing in their ears while 2 others have non-life threatening wounds.

Reports claim the foreigner who was injured threw 1st bomb at taxi and attempted to throw 2nd bomb at police but missed and blew off his own legs.

Police found Iranian currency at the scene of the 2nd explosion but they have not confirmed whether the foreigner is an Iranian national. Other reports claim he is of Lebanese descent.

Police also reported another explosion at Pridi Bhanomyong Soi 12, which is said to be the home of the foreigner.

PM Yingluck Shinawatra, who's on a provincial tour, has been informed of the bombings in Bangkok. Defense Minister ACM Sukumpol Suwanatat says he has ordered a check whether the explosions are a terrorist attack.

The bombs that exploded in Bangkok yesterday were intended for "foreign nationals" in Thailand, national police chief Priewpan Damapong.

Three bomb blasts rock city (Source: Bangkok Post)

By: Wassayos Ngamkham

The bombs that exploded in Bangkok yesterday were intended for "foreign nationals" in Thailand, national police chief Priewpan Damapong said.

He did not give further details but said only that the targets were not Thais.

The blasts injured five people including a bomb suspect carrying an Iranian passport who blew off his own legs.

Another Iranian suspect was arrested at Suvarnabhumi airport hours after the incident as he was about to leave for Malaysia. He is one of three suspects thought to be involved.

The United States and the United Kingdom yesterday reissued their travel warning for their nationals in response to the blasts.

Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak blamed the series of explosions on Iran.

Mr Barak was quoted in The Jerusalem Post as saying the bomb blasts were part of an attempted terrorist attack perpetrated by Iran.

"The attempted terror attack in Thailand proves once again that Iran and its proxies continue to operate in the ways of terror and the latest attacks are an example of that," Mr Barak said while on a state visit to Singapore.

The incident came one day after near simultaneous attacks on Israeli diplomats in Georgia and India. Israel pointed the finger at Iran for the attacks but Teheran denied responsibility.

Two explosions were heard shortly after one another around 2.20pm between soi Pridi Bhanomyong 31-35 off Sukhumvit 71 Road.

A passport found at one of the blast sites identified the severely injured man at the scene as Saeid Moradi, 28, from Iran.

The suspect reportedly threw a grenade at a taxi in Pridi Bhanomyong Soi 31 after the taxi driver failed to stop to take him.

He ran away from the scene to the front of Kasem Phithaya school on Sukhumvit 71 Road and allegedly hurled a box packed with explosives at a police patrol vehicle which was heading towards him.

The device hit a passing pickup truck, bounced back, fell next to him and exploded.

A policeman and his patrol vehicle on Sukhumvit Soi 71, apparent targets of the suspected bomber Saeid Moradi. KOSOL NAKACHOL

Three bystanders, also injured in the explosions, were identified as Apichart Khamlue, 33, Kangwal Horprasartthong, 80, and Suthathip Sajjadamrong, 62.

Mr Moradi was sent to Chulalongkorn Hospital.

Police later arrested another of the remaining suspects at Suvarnabhumi airport about 6.20pm. The man, identified as Mohummad Hazaei, 42, is holding an Iranian passport, Metropolitan Police chief Winai Thongsong said. Mr Hazaei was due to board an Air Asia flight to Malaysia.

Mr Hazaei refused to give testimony to the police and asked for a translator, Pol Lt Gen Winai said.

Pol Gen Priewpan yesterday said an investigation found Mr Hazaei arrived in Thailand on Feb 8 on the same flight as Mr Moradi and another suspect who is on the run. The three came from Malaysia and landed in Phuket.

Police searched the two-storey house where the first explosion took place and found about 4 kilogrammes of C4 explosives planted in two radio receivers. Pol Lt Gen Winai said they are the same type as the three bombs which exploded at the rented house, a taxi, and in front of the school. A bomb squad source said each bomb could cause serious damage in a 40m radius. The source said such bomb-making methods had never been found in Thailand before.

Facebook IPO To Create 1,000 Millionaires by Daily Mail

Status update: I'm rich! Facebook flotation to create 1,000 millionaires among company's rank and file.

Mark Zuckerberg - Facebook

Traveling to space or embarking on an expedition to excavate lost Mayan ruins are normally the stuff of adventure novels.

But for employees of Facebook, these and other lavish dreams are moving closer to reality as the world's No.1 online social network prepares for a blockbuster initial public offering that could create at least a thousand millionaires.

The most anticipated stock market debut of 2012 is expected to value Facebook at as much as $100 billion, which would top just about any of Silicon Valley's most celebrated coming-out parties, from Netscape to Google Inc.

Master of millionaires: A blockbuster initial public offering at Facebook, founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and his friends, could create at least a thousand millionaires

While weak financial markets could postpone or downsize any IPO, even the most conservative market-watchers say Facebook seems destined to set a new benchmark in a region famous for minting fortunes, with even the rank-and-file employees reaping millions of dollars.

Facebook employees past and present are already hatching plans on how to spend their anticipated new wealth, even as securities regulations typically prevent employee stock options from being cashed in until after a six-month lock-up period.

'There's been discussions of sort of bucket list ideas that people are putting together of things they always wanted to do and now we'll be able to do it,' said one former employee who had joined Facebook in 2005, shortly after it was founded.

He is looking into booking a trip to space that would cost $200,000 or more with Virgin Galactic or one of the other companies working on future space tourism. That's chump change when he expects his shares in Facebook to be worth some $50 million.

'If that IPO bell happens, then I will definitely put money down,' said the person, who declined to be identified because he did not want to draw attention to his financial status, given the antiglitz ethos of many people in Silicon Valley. 'It's been a childhood dream,' he said of space travel.

Others are thinking less science fiction and more 'Indiana Jones.' A group of current and former Facebook workers has begun laying the groundwork for an expedition to Mexico that sounds more suited to characters from the Steven Spielberg film 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' than to the computer geeks famously portrayed in the movie about Facebook, 'The Social Network.'

Eduardo Saverin, co-founder of Facebook
Facebook founding president Sean Parker

Initially, the group wanted to organize its own jungle expedition to excavate a relatively untouched site of Mayan ruins, according to people familiar with the matter who also did not want to court notoriety by being identified in this story. After some debate earlier this year, they are now looking at partnering with an existing archeological program.

Founded in a Harvard dorm room in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and his friends, Facebook has grown into the world's biggest social network with over 800 million members and revenue of $1.6 billion in the first half of 2011.

Information about its ownership structure or employee compensation packages is hard to come by, since the still-private company discloses very little. Facebook declined to comment for this story.

It is clear that Facebook's earliest employees, who were given ownership stakes, and early venture capital investors -- such as Accel Partners, Greylock Partners and Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel -- will see the biggest paydays. Zuckerberg, 27, is estimated to own a little over a fifth of the company, according to 'The Facebook Effect' author David Kirkpatrick.

But the wealth will trickle down to engineers, salespeople and other staffers who later joined the company, since most employees receive salary plus some kind of equity-based compensation, such as restricted stock units or stock options.

Facebook's headcount has swelled from 700 employees in late 2008 to more than 3,000 today. Given its generous use of equity-based compensation in past years, 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.

Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes
Facebook co-founders: Chris Hughes is already worth around $700,000. Dustin Moskovitz owns 6 per cent of the network.

Dustin Muskovitz
Facebook Co-Founder

Chris Hughes
Facebook Co-Founder

'There will be thousands of millionaires,' said a former in-house recruiter at Facebook, who did not want to be identified because of confidentiality agreements.

Lou Kerner, the head of private trading at Liquidnet, estimates that Facebook now has roughly 2.5 billion shares outstanding, which would translate to a per-share price of $40 at a $100 billion valuation.

Domination: Facebook has grown into the world's biggest social network with over 800 million members and revenue of $1.6 billion in the first half of 2011

Engineers are the most richly rewarded among the rank and file. The former Facebook recruiter said as recently as 2009, the company gave an engineer with 15 years experience options to buy about 65,000 shares at around $6 per share.

After a 5-for-1 stock split in October 2010, the engineer would now have the right to buy around 325,000 shares. Assuming a $40 share price, that would yield a profit of more than $12 million.

According to another former Facebook employee, it was not unusual for the company to offer some executive-level hires up to 100,000 restricted shares as recently as three years ago.

The company has since cut back on equity compensation for new hires. Managers hired one year ago received 2,000 to 30,000 restricted shares depending on the job function, according to another recruiter who had also worked for Facebook.

The company has also been stingier in handing out equity to noncore employees -- so there may not be as many of the dazzling rags-to-riches stories that were commonplace at the time of the Google IPO, when in-house chefs and at least one masseuse struck gold with options.

Facebook has its share of chefs -- including head chef Josef Desimone who was lured away from Google -- and other support staff, but it's not clear how many of them were awarded share options.

These days, 'Google and Facebook are notorious for hiring contract employees they don't have to give equity to,' said the second former Facebook recruiter.

Facebook's IPO has been long anticipated, but veterans of other startups that have gone public say the period after could be fraught with new challenges.

Some employees could grow jealous over colleagues with more stock, while others might look down on peers who are too quick to sell, questioning their loyalty to the company.

Hierarchy of reward: Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto. Engineers are the most richly rewarded among the rank and file

Boom time: Facebook was founded in a Harvard dorm room in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and his friends, but now employs 3,000 people

And there is always the risk that talented staff would leave with their newfound wealth to make their own mark in the technology world by becoming entrepreneurs or investing in other promising startups.

Some Facebook employees have already left the company to do that, selling their shares ahead of the IPO on private exchanges such as those run by SecondMarket or SharesPost.

FACEBOOK CO-FOUNDERS' WORTH

Mark Zuckerberg:
Age: 27
Net worth: $17.5 billion
Owns 24% of Facebook, previously worth $5.3 billion
ROLE: Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Facebook
Currently creating his own monetary system 'Facebook Credits' to facilitate transactions and profits, according to Forbes.

Dustin Moskovitz:
Age: 27
Net worth: $3.5 billion
Holds a 6% stake in Facebook previously worth $1.3 billion
ROLE: A co-founder and the social-networking site's first chief technology officer, Moskovitz left in 2008 and started Asana, a software company that allows individuals and small companies to better collaborate.

Eduardo Saverin:
Age: 29
Net worth: $2 billion
Most recently held a 5% stake in Facebook, previously worth $1.1 billion, which he has since sold more than half of to invest in new start-ups.
ROLE: Co-founder of Facebook

Chris Hughes:
Age: 28
Net worth: estimated at $700 million
ROLE: Co-founder & original Facebook spokesperson.
Most recently served as Barack Obama's Director of online Organizing for his 2008 presidential campaign. Currently the executive director of a new social network called Jumo which connects individuals to global nonprofits.

Sean Parker:
Age: 31
Net worth: $2.1 billion
Owns 4 percent of Facebook, worth over $880 million
ROLE: Former Facebook president, helped capture initial investors for the company

Winklevoss twins:
Age: 30
Net worth: They accepted a $20 million cash settlement and Facebook stock that could now be worth more than $150 million, according to AdWeek.
ROLE: Claimed they invented Facebook which was stolen by Mr Zuckerberg

One such person is engineer Karel Baloun, who joined the social network in 2005 and left just over a year later to start his own online network for commodities-futures traders, funded by a tidy package of stock options. It failed and Baloun laments that he could have made a lot more money if he had stayed at Facebook.

But he is philosophical, saying that the equity windfall gave him the cushion to do new things.

'It's really wonderful being able to choose your work based on the meaning of it, not the size of your salary,' said Baloun, now chief technology officer at mobile-commerce company Leap Commerce. 'I have two kids, and I couldn't do it if I didn't have some savings from this IPO.'

Baloun said he has sold about half his Facebook shares and is holding on to the rest until after the IPO. 'I will buy a house,' he said.

For many of Facebook's staffers, the IPO will provide the means to pay off school loans and buy a house or new car. Home prices in the San Francisco Bay Area have typically been lofty, but many homeowners and real-estate agents are eagerly anticipating a surge of new buyers flush with money from the IPOs of Facebook and other Web companies.

'Watch for Facebook proceeds to buy Palo Alto real estate,' said David Cowan, a venture capitalist at Bessemer Venture Partners who backed social network LinkedIn Corp, among other companies.

Wealth managers and investment advisers are also looking to win new clients from the Facebook crowd.]

'A lot of them are going to be multimillionaires at 30 and live to be 100. That means creating a 70-year plan, which is unheard of,' said John Valentine of Valentine Capital Asset Management in San Ramon, California, noting that his average client plan spans about 35 years.

Valentine, whose firm manages about $600 million in assets, said he plans to break into the Facebook client base through connections with venture capital firms, and he has meetings set the next two weeks to leverage those relationships. 'It's the hot ticket in Silicon Valley,' he said of Facebook.

David Arizini, managing director of Constellation Wealth Advisors, has several current and former Facebook employees as clients and hopes they refer more of their friends.

But he knows that it will take time and work to win them over for his firm, a New York and Menlo Park-based wealth manager with about $4.5 billion in assets under management.

'They are very skeptical of the financial services industry largely because of what has transpired over the last three years,' he said. 'So the bulk of clients interviewed five to 10 advisers before they made their choice.'

The imminent flood of Facebook dollars is sure to provide a welcome boost to local businesses in Silicon Valley, from high-end car dealerships to wine merchants.
Home sweet home: Mark Zuckerberg's new $7million home in Palo Alto, California. Realtors are expecting a property boom in the area after the IPO

Mark Zuckerberg's owns a new $7million home in Palo Alto, California. Realtors are expecting a property boom in the area after the IPO, specifically in Menlo Park.

Buff Giurlani, founder of car and wine storage service AutoVino in Menlo Park, is looking forward to an acceleration in already-brisk trade. 'If a Facebook guy buys a house and wants to remodel it, maybe the contractor will buy another car,' he said. 'Maybe the realtor will put a car in. There's a trickle-down effect.'

For Facebook's younger staffers, who favor jeans and T-shirts over designer suits, the shopping sprees will almost certainly involve computers and electronics.

'Start packing pepper spray for your next trip to the Apple store,' said Bessemer Venture's Cowan.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2072204/Facebook-IPO-create-1-000-millionaires-companys-rank-file.html#ixzz1lPTKRbvn

Facebook Files For $5 Billion IPO

The wait is over: Facebook has just filed for its IPO.

Facebook is looking to raise $5 billion— and will mint hundreds (perhaps even thousands) of employees as millionaires in the process. You can find its S-1 embedded below, or right here.

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/000119312512034517/d287954ds1.htm

Rumors of Facebook’s public offering have been swirling for years, and have long been routinely sidestepped by CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg. The company has openly acknowledged that an IPO was indeed inevitable, but has avoided giving any sense of timing — “When we’re ready” has become a familiar mantra from Facebook executives.

The wait has been made possible, in part, by the rise of secondary markets and special stock sale programs, which have allowed early employees to sell off some of their valuable stock for liquidity. Such sales have helped reduce the amount of internal pressure to go public, which has given Facebook more time to build up its reach and products prior to the IPO.

Facebook also received an exemption in 2008 that allowed it to surpass the SEC’s ’500 shareholders’ rule, which would have mandated that the company begin releasing some of its financial figures publicly (Facebook argued at the time that most of its shareholders were employees — and their request was approved).