At $75 billion to $100 billion, the valuation could be lower than expected

According to The Wall Street Journal, Facebook will file its S-1 with the Securities & Exchange Commission next week, perhaps on Wednesday. It looks like Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) will be the lead banker. In terms of Net deals, Morgan has been the go-to player. Some of its other transactions include Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN), Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA) and LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD).

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) is supposed to have a key role in the deal. But losing the lead to Morgan must be a huge disappointment for Goldman. Consider that it led the $1.5 billion private financing round for Facebook about a year ago.

The social network’s valuation is expected to range from $75 billion to $100 billion. Interestingly enough, this is down from the $100 billion+ that has been widely rumored. Perhaps Facebook��s financials aren’t as standout? Maybe Google��s (NASDAQ:GOOG) social network is becoming a problem?

Regardless, Facebook’s offering is likely to be the biggest one in Internet history.

The SEC, however, may also take this as an opportunity to set up some guidelines. Might it crack down on secondary markets? What about accounting rules for digital sales? This IPO filing could be a source of vigorous debate beyond valuation.

Tom Taulli runs the InvestorPlace blog?IPO Playbook, a site dedicated to the hottest news and rumors about initial public offerings. He also is the author of?��All About Short Selling��?and?��All About Commodities.��?Follow him on Twitter at?@ttaulli. As of this writing, he did not own a position in any of the aforementioned securities.