Insider reveals Facebook's $3.5bn cash hoard

Facebook is sitting on a massive $3.5bn in cash according to a well-placed mole's leaked figures, revealing that the social networking giant is earning considerably more money than first believed.

According to the internal figures that were leaked by Gawker, the social network had operating revenues of $2.5bn between January and September of this year. The company's assets currently sit at $5.6bn, including a frankly enormous $3.5bn in cash. Facebook also looks set to hit the $1bn mark in profits this year, with recorded figures of $714m between January and September. Clearly, Mark Zuckerberg's outfit is making considerable profits despite increased competition from the likes of Google.

Rumors have been flying around for a while suggesting the firm is planning an IPO as early as next year, considered to be the biggest public offering since Google joined the stock market in 2004 (bar today's Zynga offering). Initially the offering was estimated in the region of $70bn, but the Wall Street Journal recently reported they are expecting it to be closer to $100bn. At that price, Zuckerberg can look forward to his 24 percent stake jumping its value to an overwhelming $24bn.

In September, Reuters reported that Facebook's revenues had doubled from the previous year's figures to $1.6bn in the first six months of 2011. In 2010, the firm had revenues of $1.2bn in the first nine months of 2010. Of that, $355m was net income, according to the Guardian.

So if the latest figures are correct, it would show the social giant is still rapidly growing despite increased competition and the recently highlighted privacy concerns. Facebook officials have unfortunately refused to comment on financials for the company.

Yesterday Facebook introduced its new timeline feature, to a mixed response from the public. Billed by the site as being a story of your life, it will stretch back as long as you have been a member and display life events and other updates in a chronological order. The new feature is available to all 800 million users on an opt-in basis.