• VentureBeat, Wednesday, April 1, 2009 11:15 AM

Facebook on Tuesday simultaneously sacked its CFO, released financial data for 2008 and 2009, and hinted that an IPO was forthcoming. VentureBeat's Eric Eldon says this is Facebook's way of defending itself to the press, which has been critical of the social networking giant's ability to make money from advertising, its apparent struggle to raise more capital, and its recent string of high-profile employee defections.

The company revealed that it's on track to make 70% more this year than in 2008. Eldon notes that if 2008 revenues were close to $300 million, then this year's revenue must be close to $500 million. "This number is substantially higher than what we've heard its internal revenue projections to be (between somewhere under $400 million to possibly as high as $430 million)," Eldon says. "So what's going on?"

The revenue boost certainly isn't coming from Facebook's deal with Microsoft to sell banner ads on the site. A company insider even mentions that Facebooko has become "less and less dependent" on Microsoft's ad partnership as a way of making money. That means Facebook's own advertising efforts must be paying off, such as allowing a company's public page to show up within the site's homepage "highlights" section, or its self-serve advertising system. Says Eldon, "What we still don't know is if Facebook has figured out a way to get long-term growth -- especially beyond banner ads -- or if the new money is of a more fleeting kind." The company is banking on growth being permanent, as it expects to be cash flow positive by 2010.

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