Facebook, the startup website that the kid from Squid & the Whale was accused of stealing from those twins in that pistachio commercial (or at least that’s what I learned from fast-forwarding through The Social Network), is finally set to join the ranks of the publicly traded. The company has filed papers for its initial public offering, which is expected to make a bunch of people really, really rich and maybe, just maybe, make us all love one another again.

The documents, in which Facebook sets a very humble preliminary goal of $5 billion, were filed earlier today with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The actual pricing of the stock or date it will be tossed into the water like so much bloody chum is yet to be announced, though it’s all expected to happen in May.

Facebook claims 845 million users (though we expect that a good chunk of those are duplicates used by Zynga addicts to game the Farmville system) and annual revenue of $3.7 billion.

Morgan Stanley will be the lead bank for the IPO, so hat’s off to them for landing what’s expected to be somewhere around $500 million in fees from the offering.

Facebook files for IPO; hopes to raise $5 billion [LA Times]

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