Facebook’s Rise From Start-Up to Establishment

Facebook's prospectus, released today, offers readers a voyeuristic look at the company's operations, its profits and the riches it will shower on fortunate investors and insiders. Reading between the lines of the prospectus also reveals a case study of how, in an age of income inequality and embedded privilege, an outsider can very quickly become part of the establishment. It shows how a good idea can attract not just capital and customers, but people and other institutions. Facebook has definitively arrived.

It starts literally at the top of the prospectus -- with the lead underwriter. Facebook chose Morgan Stanley, the last remaining white-shoe firm, which traces its lineage to J.P. Morgan.    More Read