LOS ANGELES – When Facebook makes its long-expected debut as a public company this spring, the social-networking company will likely vault into the top ranks of the largest public companies in the world, on par with the likes of McDonald’s, Amazon.com and Bank of America.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Facebook is preparing to file initial paperwork for an offering that could raise as much as $10 billion and value the company at $75 billion to $100 billion. The filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission could come as early as Wednesday, with an initial public offering of stock in three or four months.

The targeted amount would slot it among the world’s 25 largest IPOs, although as recently as November 2010, General Motors raised $15.8 billion when it shed majority control by the U.S. government.

The IPOs of 14 companies would rank higher than Facebook’s, according to investment adviser Renaissance Capital. Among them were Visa’s $17.9 billion IPO in March 2008, the largest for a U.S. company, and world-topper Agricultural Bank of China Ltd., which raised $19.3 billion in July 2010, not including extra shares issued to meet demand.

Facebook spokesman Larry Wu said the company will not comment on IPO-related speculation.

The Journal also said that Facebook was close to picking Morgan Stanley as the lead underwriter, which would be a setback for rival Goldman Sachs. Both declined comment to The Associated Press.

The buzz surrounding an outsized haul for Facebook’s founders, employees and early investors remains a hopeful symbol for capital markets following a deep recession.

At the reported price, Facebook’s IPO would be the biggest for a U.S. Internet company ever — topping the debut of one of its main rivals, Google Inc.

“We are expecting 2012 to be a year of recovery for the IPO market, led by the Facebook IPO,” said Kathy Smith, Renaissance Capital’s principal.

The event will follow a string of tepid debuts by technology startups, including social game maker Zynga and discount advertiser Groupon. The stocks of both companies are just pennies above their offering prices in December and November respectively.

Facebook’s will be the most anticipated tech IPO since Google went public in August 2004. The IPO raised $1.9 billion and grabbed Google a market value of $23 billion, the biggest so far for a U.S. Internet company.

Facebook’s reported valuation of $75 billion to $100 billion compares with about $100 billion for McDonald’s Corp., $90 billion for Citigroup Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. and $75 billion for Bank of America Corp.

Both Facebook and Google earn most of their money from advertising and are now competing to gain as much information as possible about their users to help advertisers target niche audiences.

John Fitzgibbon Jr., publisher of IPOScoop.com, warns that it’s early to get too excited.

“Until they actually put the ink on the paper and push it across the desk of the SEC, it’s all speculation,” he said.