In recent months, Wall Street’s banks have competed fiercely for a top assignment(分配)in Facebook’s offering, a coup(政变) that comes with millions in fees and valuablebragging(吹牛) rights. The company has hired Morgan Stanley to serve as its topunderwriter(保险公司), while J.P.Morgan and Goldman Sachs will also be co-leads on the deal, according to people with knowledge of the matter who did not want to beidentified(确定) because the discussions were private. (来源：EnglishCN.com)

The offering will compel(强迫) Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s 27-year-old founder and chief executive(经理), to do what he has until now preferred to avoid: share information about his company.

Facebook, created in 2004 in Mr. Zuckerberg’s dorm(宿舍) room at Harvard, grew from being a quirky(古怪的) site for college students into a remarkably(显著地) popular platform that is used to sell cars and movies, win over voters in presidential(总统的)elections(选举) and organize protest(表示抗议的) movements. It jumped from 50 million users in 2007 to 800 million in 2011, according to company figures. It offers advertisers a global platform, with three-fourths of its users outside the United States; thenotable(值得注意的) exception(例外) is China, where Facebook does not operate.

Facebook’s offering is “an American milestone(里程碑),” said Lawrence H. Summers, the former Treasury secretary, who has been a mentor(指导者) to Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, and knows Mr. Zuckerberg. “Many companies provide products that let people do things they’ve done before in better ways. Most important companies, like Ford in its day or I.B.M. in its, are those that open up whole newcapabilities(才能) and permit whole new connections. Facebook is such a company.”

Facebook has deftly(熟练地) kept more and more users on its site for hours every day. Its users can stream music, read the news, play virtual(虚拟的) games, checkhoroscopes(占星术) or upload family pictures — all without leaving Facebook’s orbit. Theyreveal(显示) to the company not only their names (Facebook prohibits(阻止)pseudonyms(笔名)) and hometowns, but also their friends and family members and their tastes on everything from pop music to politics.

Facebook offers advertisers a giant basket of information so they can find precisely(精确地) the audience they covet(垂涎): a Boston woman who posts that she is “engaged(吸引)” may be offered an ad for a wedding photographer on her Facebook page, while a Bombay bride-to-be might see ads for wedding saris. Similarly, every press of a “like” button on Facebook signals a consumer’s preferences and shapes the ads that are shown. The Facebook Connect service allows users to log into millions of sites using their Facebook username and password — and it can report back about their activity on those sites,amassing(积累) even more data for Facebook’s trove(收藏的东西).