According to a breaking report from the Wall Street Journal, the world's largest online social network could file papers as early as next week on Wednesday February 1st for its long-awaited initial public offering (IPO).

People familiar with the matter have said that the company is in talks with Morgan Stanley as the possible lead underwriter for its IPO. At time of writing, however, Facebook spokemen and Morgan Stanley spokesmen have declined to comment.

The Facebook IPO is likely to have two or more active managers, with Morgan Stanley rival Goldman Sachs Group expected to play a significant role in the deal as well, said people familiar with the matters.

While details are scarce at this point, the $10 billion share offering would yield the company a total valuation of $100 billion. In comparison, the largest global technology IPO currently on record was a $5.9 billion offer by Infineon Technologies AG in 2000. Google's own Internet IPO back in 2004 was valued at $23 billion and only ranked third among global Internet IPOs.

Mashable has published a convenient article titled Everything You Need to Know About Facebook's $100 Billion IPO which can be found here.