WebProNews

Site should take in $300 million+ this year

Look for double the revenue, more new hires, and a lot of shiny new servers in 2008 at Facebook, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Someone at Facebook might want to be a teensy bit more careful in giving out dial-in numbers to company meetings. You never know where they could end up later.

Fortunately, Kara Swisher at All Things D ended up with the number. She took plenty of notes as Zuckerberg told an employee gathering at a Palo Alto theater about the company's finances.

Facebook took in $150 million in revenue in 2007. According to Zuckerberg, that should rise to the neighborhood of $300 million to $350 million in 2008.

More people will be onboard at the social networking company, as the current employee roll of 450 should pass 1,000 people this year.

Swisher also noted the company plans to make $200 million in capital expenditures, but earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization of $50 million means Facebook would have negative cash flow of $150 million.

Microsoft's investment in Facebook provided ample cash to the company, which may have them less worried about the cash flow issue.

But considering Google's disclosure that social networking ads, which we have to take as meaning the company's deal with Facebook rival MySpace, have not performed well, Zuckerberg may have to worry a little more about the future.

If Google's Midas-like touch can't turn advertising on MySpace into gold, Facebook may have similar problems going forward in 2008.