Cloud Computing: Facebook IPO to Dwarf Recent Groupon, Zynga, LinkedIn Stock Market Debuts

Facebook filed for its initial public offering as expected Feb. 1, ending a week of hype, buzz and punditry that had financial and Internet analysts predicting the social network giant's initial public offering would be the biggest in the history of the Internet. The company will trade under the ticker symbol "FB, but has not revealed whether it will trade on the NASDAQ or NYSE. While Facebook will go on touting its Like buttons for Web publishers and hawking its Timeline user interface for consumers and applications alike, the company's financial statements will be poked, prodded and pored over by hundreds of experts looking to divine just how big an Internet player Facebook is now and can become 5, 10, 15 years down the road. Facebook may be the biggest IPO to date, but it isn't the only game in town. In this slide show, eWEEK takes a look at some of the top Internet company IPOs of the past couple of years, along with some obvious earlier blockbuster debuts. Plus, we make our logical guess for whom we think the next IPO will be.