Facebook SEC and IPO info

Facebook on Monday filed an amendment to its S-1 documents originally submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on February 1. With its IPO date reportedly set for May 17, the social networking giant has published new stats that reflect growth and revenue over the last fiscal quarter, which ended on March 31.

In addition, Facebook recently announced plans to acquire photo-sharing app Instagram and to purchase a large number of AOL patents from Microsoft. Here are some key stats from the amendment:

Monthly active users now total 901 million (up from 680 million a year ago). Daily active users are up to 526 million (up from 372 million last year). Monthly mobile users now total 488 million. 300 million photos are uploaded to the site each day. 3.2 billion Likes and Comments are posted daily. 125 billion friendships are forged per day.

Facebook will pay $300 million in cash, plus 23 million shares of common stock for photo-sharing app Instagram. If the Instagram deal falls through, Facebook will pay $200 million. Revenue for the first quarter of 2012 was $1.058 billion, up from $731 last year. Net income dropped to $205 million for the quarter, down from $233 last year.

(As pointed out by TechCrunch, the total value of Facebook's Instagram deal -- cash and shares included -- totals $1,010,470,000.) The company also added some new risk factors to its S-1, including one outlining the inherent risks of Facebook's ongoing patent battle with Yahoo. From the filing: [O]n March 12, 2012,

Yahoo filed a lawsuit against us in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California that alleges that a number of our products infringe the claims of ten of Yahoo’s patents that Yahoo claims relate to “advertising,” “social networking,” “privacy,” “customization,” and “messaging.” Yahoo is seeking unspecified damages, a damage multiplier for alleged willful infringement, and an injunction.

We intend to vigorously defend this lawsuit, and on April 3, 2012, we filed our answer with respect to this complaint and asserted counterclaims that Yahoo’s products infringe ten of our patents. This litigation is still in its early stages and the final outcome, including our liability, if any, with respect to Yahoo’s claims, is uncertain.

If an unfavorable outcome were to occur in this litigation, the impact could be material to our business, financial condition, or results of operations. Facebook expects to raise $5 billion in its IPO, which may value the company at close to $100 billion.

The company will trade on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol "FB."

Upheaval in European politics

The chase by Marty Cej:

European stocks are falling and U.S. stock index futures are pointing to early declines after reports showing manufacturing contracted in April in China and Europe, French voters handed Socialist Francois Hollande a win in the first round of the presidential election and the Dutch Prime Minister failed to reach an accord with a coalition party over proposed austerity measures that might help the country avoid being pulled into the region's debt crisis. Late Friday, the IMF confirmed it had won $430 billion US in new funding commitments. A good thing since it looks like Europe is gonna need it.

Austerity in Peril! We'll need to focus on budgets today; not the details of this budget or that, but the fact that some tough-talking budgets are in question as elections and votes take place. French President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday became the first incumbent since 1958 to lose the first round of the presidential election, putting the crisis-fighting team of Merkozy in jeopardy. His opponent, Hollande, wants to renegotiate the European fiscal compact. In the Netherlands, the prime minister's calls for additional budget cuts have met with resistance from a parliamentary ally, which may mean he'll need to gamble on early elections to shore up additional support. In Canada, Alberta chooses a new leader today and Ontario's budget goes to a vote Tuesday.

Wal-Mart Stores found itself on the front page of The New York Times yesterday and vying for the Top Story slot everywhere else today. In a lengthy feature, the Times yesterday alleged that the world's biggest retailer bribed local officials in Mexico more than six years ago to speed the opening of stores and that executives probed those allegations as far back as 2005 but then covered them up. Today, Wal-Mart said it is "committed to getting to the bottom of this matter… Unfortunately, we realize that, at this point, there are some unanswered questions. We wish we could say more."

Among the angles we need to pursue are the questions of governance and oversight. We need to understand the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and how it is applied. We need to look at the Canadian equivalent and how it is applied and whether it has been successful or not. I'd like to hear from a company CEO with operations abroad about how difficult it can be at times to apply Canadian governance rules to business done where the rules are different. And we need to be clear that we are talking about allegations.

With the proxy vote to determine the fate of CP Rail inching closer, Headline gets an update with Bill Ackman, CEO, Pershing Square Capital Management, at 12:30 p.m. ET.

There are some big deals we need to consider today. Nestle has agreed to buy Pfizer's (pronounced "Pfizer") baby food unit for almost $12 billion. That's a lot of pablum. AstraZeneca has agreed to buy Ardea Biosciences for $1.3 billion, giving AstraZeneca a new drug to combat gout. Henry IIIV is most pleased with the transaction.

In earnings, we are watching numbers from ConocoPhillips, Hasbro and Xerox. CN Rail reports after the close, as does Texas Instruments.