Facebook revenue set to pass billion-pound-a-year mark

The performance means it was on track for 2010 revenue of more than a billion pounds and is pulling in a quarter of Yahoo!'s revenue.

The ailing internet portal reported revenue for the first nine months of 2010 of $4.8bn and net income of $927m.

Google reported revenue of $20.9bn and  net income of $2.17bn for the same period. 

Facebook's figures were disclosed In a 100-page document sent to Goldman Sachs clients, which was seen by a number of publications including the Financial Times and Reuters.

The company indicated that it would begin disclosing comprehensive financial information or go public as early as April 2012.

Earlier this week (4 January), Facebook received a $500m investment from Goldman Sachs and Russian investor Digital Sky Technologies. The Wall Street bank also set up a special purpose investment vehicle for its clients to raise a further $1.5bn.

The investment valued the company at $50bn and sparked speculation that an IPO is on the horizon

Currently, Facebook does not disclose financial data. In the document, the social media network stated that it expected to cross the 500-investor threshold by 2010, which, under US law, would mean it would be forced to publicly disclose financial information.

Facebook declined to comment on the reports.

This article was first published on brandrepublic.com