Facebook's IPO filing, by the numbers

Facebook's IPO filing on Wednesday offers investors, bankers, analysts, journalists and anyone willing to read the massive S-1 document a deeper look at the business and financial side of the world's largest social network than we've ever had before.

Our team of tech and business reporters has been digging into the filing, reporting on the Menlo Park, Calif., company's $3.7-billion revenue, rivalries with Twitter and Google+, perspective on China, social mission and hacker ethos, Zynga accounting for 12% of Facebook's revenue, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg's pay cut from $600,000 in 2012 to $1 in 2013 and even what the IPO could mean for the Winklevoss twins.

But that wasn't all the S-1 had to say. Here are some other highlights from Facebook's IPO filing before the company actually goes public in May:

Users: Facebook has an average of 845 million monthly active users, 483 million of whom log into the social network daily.

Workforce: At the end of 2011, Facebook had 3,200 full-time employees, up 50% from 2,127 employees 2010. In 2009, the company had 1,218 employees.

Worldwide: Facebook's plan, unsurprisingly, is to continue to grow by gaining more users in countries around the world. But the company also said in its S-1 that it plans to grow its workforce worldwide as well. "We plan to continue the international expansion of our business operations and the translation of our products," Facebook said. Currently, Facebook is offered in more than 70 different languages, and the company has data centers in more than 20 different countries.

Popularity: Facebook said that about 60% of the online population in the U.S. and U.K. is registered on the social network. But Facebook is more popular in Chile, Turkey and Venezuela, where the company has "penetration rates of greater than 80% of Internet users."

There are more than 2 billion Internet users worldwide and Facebook said its goal is to connect all of them through its social network.

"In countries such as Brazil, Germany, and India we estimate that we have penetration rates of approximately 20-30%; in countries such as Japan, Russia, and South Korea we estimate that we have penetration rates of less than 15%; and in China, where Facebook access is restricted, we have near 0% penetration," the filing said.

Money in the bank: Facebook said that it had $1.5 billion at its disposal in a mix of "cash and cash equivalents" as of Dec. 31, as well as $2.3 billion in "marketable securities." In 2010, Facebook had $1.7 billion in cash and cash equivalents and no marketable securities. Total assets on hand amounted to $6.6 billion in 2011, while Facebook had a total of $1.4 billion in liabilities.

R&D: Facebook's research and development efforts have seen massive growth over the last few years. In 2011, the company spent $388 million, or about 10.5% of its revenue, on R&D. In 2010, Facebook spent less than half that amount, with $144 million going toward R&D. In 2009, the company spend $87 million on R&D, up from $47 million in 2008 and $81 million in 2007.

Patents: Faceook said a major factor in whether or not the company will be able to maintain the huge success it's had thus far will ride on its ability to "protect our core technology and intellectual property."

To do that, Facebook will "rely on a combination of patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, including know-how, license agreements, confidentiality procedures, non-disclosure agreements with third parties, employee disclosure and invention assignment agreements, and other contractual rights." The social media giant ended 2011 with 56 patents and 503 patent applications filed in the U.S., along with 33 corresponding patents and 149 patent applications filed in foreign countries.

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Photo: Visitors pose in front of a sign at the entrance of Facebook's new headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., on Wednesday. Credit: Kimihiro Hoshino / AFP/Getty Images

EU investigating Samsung's 3G patent licensing practices

Samsung's patent lawsuits with Apple and other rivals are bringing the South Korean tech giant a bit of regulatory scrutiny in the European Union.

On Tuesday, the European Commission, the E.U.'s antitrust agency, said it had formally launched an investigation into whether Samsung had broken any competition laws by not allowing rivals to fairly license patents relating to 3G technology.

"The European Commission has opened a formal investigation to assess whether Samsung Electronics has abusively, and in contravention of a commitment it gave to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), used certain of its standard essential patent rights to distort competition in European mobile device markets, in breach of EU antitrust rules," the commission said in a statement. "The opening of proceedings means that the Commission will examine the case as a matter of priority. It does not prejudge the outcome of the investigation."

Central to the investigation is determining whether Samsung has lived up to a pledge the company made 14 years ago to license patents it owned that are "essential" to 3G technology in mobile devices such as phones and tablets.

"In 2011, Samsung sought injunctive relief in various Member States' courts against competing mobile device makers based on alleged infringements of certain of its patent rights which it has declared essential to implement European mobile telephony standards," the E.U. agency said. "The Commission will investigate, in particular, whether in doing so Samsung has failed to honour its irrevocable commitment given in 1998 to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to license any standard essential patents relating to European mobile telephony standards on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. The Commission will examine whether such behaviour amounts to an abuse of a dominant position prohibited by Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU)."

Samsung officials were unavailable for comment Tuesday on the commission's investigation, but the agency said it would work to "guarantee undistorted competition and to reap the positive economic effects of standardisation" of technologies such as 3G wireless connectivity. "It is important that FRAND commitments be fully honoured by the concerned undertakings," the commission said.

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

Nathan Olivarez-Giles on Google+

Twitter.com/nateog

Photo: A Samsung Electronics representative talks about Samsung products at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Jan. 13, 2012. Credit: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

Apple vs. Samsung: Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales ban upheld in Germany

Samsung was dealt a loss in its ongoing patent battle with Apple as the South Korean electronics maker's request to overturn a ban on the sale of its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in Germany was denied.

A Dusseldorf regional appeals court upheld the August 2011 sales injunction of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and said that Samsung's Galaxy Tab 8.9 also should be banned from being sold, according to a report on the website FOSS Patents by patent expert Florian Mueller.

Although the decision hurts Samsung, the ruling may also be a setback for Apple. The reasoning behind the court's decision wasn't because of Apple's claims that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 infringes on the design patents for the iPad tablet. Rather, "the appeals court based its decision on a violation of German unfair competition law," Mueller reported.

The injunction against Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales in Germany cited Apple's design patents as the reasoning for pulling the Samsung tablet off store shelves.

In an effort to not miss out on the growing tablet market in Germany, Samsung redesigned the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and then re-released a new German version called the Galaxy Tab 10.1N, which is allowed to be sold, though Apple has requested a sales ban on that product too.

The Dusseldorf appeals court ruling is the latest in an international fight between Samsung, Apple and their respective teams of lawyers. Last week, Apple was denied a requested sales ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the Netherlands, where the two companies are locked in a patent battle.

Earlier this month, Apple filed two new patent suits against Samsung in Germany, seeking a ban on 10 Samsung phones and five tablets. Last month, a U.S. district court in San Jose denied Apple's request for a ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 before a July trial on Apple's lawsuit against Samsung in that court.

In December, a temporary ban on the Samsung tablet in Australia expired in a related suit between the two tech giants. The Australian dispute is set to go to trial in March, and other suits have been filed across Europe and Asia.

While the two companies are rivals and suing to block the sales of one another's products, Samsung and Apple are also business partners. Samsung, for example, manufactures the Apple-designed A4 and A5 processors found in the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and iPod Touch, among other components, such as flash memory, inside of many Apple devices.

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

Nathan Olivarez-Giles on Google+

Twitter.com/nateog

Photo: A Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet on display this month at a company showroom in Seoul. Credit: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

Apple loses bid to ban Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Netherlands

For the second time, a Netherlands court has denied Apple its request for a ban on sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet, whose design Apple says illegally copies the iPad's.

The Samsung victory, first reported on the blog Foss Patents run by patent expert Florian Mueller, came Tuesday in The Hague, where an appeals court ruled that the Samsung device -- which runs on Google's Android operating system -- doesn't steal from the iPad's patented design.

The Dutch court's decision, which upheld a lower-court ruling made in August, is another setback for Apple in its worldwide patent battle against South Korea-based Samsung.

Last month, a U.S. district court in San Jose denied Apple's request for a ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 before a July trial on Apple's lawsuit in that court. Also in December, a temporary ban on the Samsung tablet in Australia expired. The dispute is set to go to trial in Australia in March.

Apple last week filed two new patent suits against Samsung in Germany, seeking a ban on 10 Samsung phones and five tablets.

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

Nathan Olivarez-Giles on Google+

Twitter.com/nateog

Photo: An Apple iPad 2, left, and a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 at a store in the Netherlands. Credit: Robert Vos / EPA

Apple sues Samsung again in Germany, calls for ban on 10 phones

Apple has reportedly filed another patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung in Germany, this time calling for a sales ban on 10 smartphones it says violate its design rights.

Filed in Dusseldorf Regional Court, Apple's suit -- which calls for a ban on the Galaxy S II, Galaxy S Plus and eight other models -- isn't the only front in the ongoing international patent battle between the two firms, reports said Tuesday. Apple also filed a suit against five Samsung tablets "related to a September ruling" that imposes a sales ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1, according to a Bloomberg report.

Apple alleges that Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 copied the design of the Apple iPad in a way intended to confuse customers. After sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 were halted in Germany, Samsung released the re-designed Galaxy Tab 10.1N, which the Dusseldorf court said in December is different enough from the iPad that "it is unlikely to grant an injunction" against the new design, Bloomberg said.

"An appeals court also voiced doubts about the reach of Apple's European Union design right that won the company the injunction against the Galaxy 10.1," the report said.

For now, Apple's new smartphone suit against Samsung is set to "come before the court in August and the case against Samsung's tablets will follow in September," according to PCWorld.

If this all sounds a bit familiar, it is. Apple and Samsung have been suing and counter-suing each another across Europe, Asia, the U.S. and Australia for months, each alleging patent infringement over the design and operation of their respective phones and tablets.

In December, Apple failed to win an extension of a temporary sales ban against the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia, where the dispute between the two tech giants is set to go to trial in March.

According to the news site ArsTechnica, the ongoing patent battle between Apple and Samsung has caught the attention of the European Commission, which is conducting an antitrust investigation with the two companies regarding the suits.

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

Nathan Olivarez-Giles on Google+

Twitter.com/nateog

Photo: An Apple iPad 2, left, and a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 at a store in The Hague, Netherlands, in August. Credit: Robert Vos / European Pressphoto Agency

RIM sued over use of BBM name by BBM Canada

Research In Motion is facing a new lawsuit for its use of BBM as a name for its BlackBerry Messenger service by a Canadian radio and TV industry group known as BBM Canada.

Based in Toronto since 1944, BBM Canada filed its suit against Research In Motion this month "after attempts to negotiate failed," according to the Globe and Mail newspaper which first reported on the complaint.

Jim MacLeod, BBM Canada's chief executive, told the Globe and Mail that RIM also turned down an offer from BBM Canada in which the group would rename itself if RIM would pay for the costs of the rebranding, but the smartphone maker wasn't interested.

Officials at RIM were unavailable to comment Friday, but the company told the Globe and Mail that it doesn't comment on ongoing legal matters.

MacLeod said BBM Canada doesn't want to pick on RIM, which has had a tough year with declining market share, sliding profit and another trademark lawsuit loss over the use of the BBX name.

"We want our name back," he said in the report. "I find it kind of amazing that this wouldn't have been thought about before they decided to use the name. The same thing goes for BBX."

RIM announced in October that its next smartphone and tablet operating system would be called BBX, a name owned by the New Mexican software firm Basis International, which quickly sued RIM for trademark infringement. Earlier this month, RIM was denied use of the BBX name and announced that its next operating system would instead be known as BlackBerry 10.

BlackBerry 10 has been under development for months and was slated to launch early in 2012 before being delayed into late 2012. When it arrives, RIM says, it will be the first OS from the company to run on both smartphones and tablets -- an approach taken by Apple's iOS and Google's new Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

The delay is the latest of multiple product delays to hit RIM this year, including the delay of an update to the software running on its PlayBook tablet, which recently racked up a $485-million loss for RIM in unsold inventory. So far, no mobile carriers have offered up a 3G or 4G version of the PlayBook, and RIM has also dealt with layoffs, service outages and takeover rumors.

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Photo: BlackBerry Messenger on a BlackBerry smartphone from Research In Motion. Credit: Oliver Lang / Associated Press

BT sues Google, alleges widespread patent infringement

British Telecommunications, better known as BT, has accused Google of infringing six of its patents in a lawsuit filed in the U.S.

The company -- which has customers in more than 170 countries and offers land-line and mobile phone service as well as Internet TV and IT services -- alleges in its suit that a number of Google products violate its patents, including Google's search engine, the Android mobile operating system and Android Market app store, Gmail, Google+, Google Books, Docs, Maps, Music, Places, Offers and advertising operations.

Google plans to fight the suit, saying in an emailed statement: "We believe these claims are groundless and we will vigorously defend ourselves against them."

The suit, which was first reported by the website Foss Patents and filed in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Del., didn't specify what sort of damages BT is looking for, but did ask for an injunction against the products it accuses of infringing its patents.

The six patents BT accuses Google of violating cover broad technologies, such as products that tailor what information they present based on the location a user is in, as well as how user location and profile information is stored and accessed.

The BT suit is one of many Google is grappling with. The tech giant is dealing with a patent battle against Oracle, a suit from EBay/PayPal and suits from Apple and Microsoft directed at Google's hardware partners.

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

Nathan Olivarez-Giles on Google+

Twitter.com/nateog

Photo: A Google sign outside the tech giant's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Credit: Clay McLachlan / Reuters

Apple vs. Samsung: Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales ban lifted in Australia

Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet is back on sale in Australia after a temporary sales ban on the competitor to Apple's iPad expired on the device due to a patent lawsuit between the two companies in that country.

The lifting of the sales injunction is a win for Samsung, since it finally can start selling the Galaxy Tab 10.1 after the South Korean tech giant voluntarily pulled the Galaxy Tab 10.1 from shelves in August and an Australian court order made the ban official in October.

Samsung, however, won't be able to sell the Galaxy Tab until next week as it wasn't allowed to import shipments of Galaxy Tab 10.1 into Australia as a part of the sales ban, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Apple and Samsung are suing each other over alleged patent infringement related to technologies used in their respective tablets, and the expiration of the ban is the latest development before the dispute goes to go to trial in March.

But as we've reported the clash in Australia is just one part of a larger international patent battle between the two consumer electronics heavyweights that cover touchscreen technology, the look and feel of products and even how the devices connect to the Internet.

Apple and Samsung are suing one another in the U.S., France and 30 other European countries, as well as Japan. And in other countries, the litigation has spread to encompass Samsung's Galaxy S, Galaxy S II and Ace smartphones, other Galaxy Tab tablets (all products that run Google's Android operating system), and Apple's iPhone and iPad products.

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

Nathan Olivarez-Giles on Google+

Twitter.com/nateog

Photo: An Apple iPad 2, left, and a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 at a store in the Hague, Netherlands, in August. Credit: Robert Vos / European Pressphoto Agency

Apple denied ownership of iPad trademark in China

Apple has been denied the rights to the trademark for the term "iPad" in China in a legal battle with Hong Kong-based Proview Technology that registered a trademark back in 2000, according to reports.

At the core of the dispute is whether or not a 2006 agreement between Proview's Taiwan-based subsidiary, Proview Electronics, to sell Apple the "global trademark" for the "IPAD" name for £35,000, or about $54,000, applies to China, according to a report from the Financial Times.

Apple says the agreement should include trademark rights in China, and Proview disagrees, Reuters reported.

Proview is arguing that the Chinese trademark owned by its Shenzhen-based company, Proview Technology, is different than the trademark formerly owned by Proview Electronics, the reports said.

Apple has sued Proview Technology for trademark infringement in the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court, the Financial Times said, adding that while the court has rejected Apple's ownership claim, the U.S. tech giant can appeal the decision.

Meanwhile, Proview Technology has sued Apple resellers in China in an attempt to block the sale of Apple's iPad tablets, the reports said. In October, Proview Technology also filed a suit against Apple seeking 10 billion yuan, or about $1.5 billion, from Apple over alleged infringement of its Chinese "iPad" trademark.

But despite the legal back-and-forth, Proview spokesperson Li Su said told the Financial Times that a the company is open to a settlement.

"We hope that this decision will make our negotiations with Apple a bit easier," Su said in the report.

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

Nathan Olivarez-Giles on Google+

Twitter.com/nateog

Photo: An Apple iPad 2, running the Tabletop app. Credit: Armand Emamdjomeh/Los Angeles Times

California leads venture funding for electric vehicle technology

California is fast becoming a global center for electric-vehicle innovation and jobs.

Businesses in the state collected $467 million in electric vehicle venture capital investment during the first half of this year, or 69% of the global total, according to a study by Next 10, a nonprofit founded by Silicon Valley venture capitalist F. Noel Perry.

California also is now tied with Michigan, the traditional center of the U.S. auto industry, in the number of patents filed for electric vehicle technology. Both states generated 300 patents for electric vehicle technology from 2008 to 2010.

Globally, California trails only Japan and South Korea in electric vehicle patents and leads other nations, including Germany, Taiwan and France, Perry said.

Employment also is taking off. Tesla Motors has hired 300 workers in California so far this year, bringing its national workforce to about 1,400. It plans to double its employment next year, with most of the jobs coming to an auto factory in Fremont that it is refurbishing to launch production of its Model S electric sedan in 2012.

“We have a huge hiring plan for next year,” said Arnnon Geshuri, Tesla’s vice president of human resources.

Tesla’s growth is starting to trickle to vendors and contractors. Geshuri said Tesla is busy upgrading and building more office space at the Fremont factory.

“That means we will need more carpet, tables and desks, and that has an economic effect on the trade groups that provide those services,” he said.

Other companies, from small electric drive manufacturers to businesses that install electric vehicle charging stations commercially and in homes also are growing rapidly, with many having doubled their workforces or grown even faster this year.