Facebook profits to hit $1bn as floatation nears

The figures, which were published last week on the blog Gawker, via a source "with knowledge of Facebook’s finances", show that the company's net income surged to $714m (£460m) for the first three quarters of this year ended 30 September, putting it on course to reach $1bn by the end of 2011.

It claims this is more than double what the company reportedly made last year and adds that the company is "swimming in cash".

The disclosure of the figures comes ahead of the expected flotation of the social network in the second quarter of 2012.

The figures chime with a report in Reuters earlier this year, which revealed that Facebook's net income in the first half of 2011 came to almost $500m. Revenues were reported to be double the previous year at $1.6bn, for the same period.

Facebook declined to comment on the figures.

This puts the 800 million-member social networking company in good stead for its floatation, which has been widely valued at $100bn.

However, the disclosure of the figures come in the same week as social gaming company, Zynga, which has been widely heralded as a Facebook business success story, saw its stock tumble 5% on its first day of trading, after having debuted at $10 a share.

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This article was first published on mediaweek.co.uk