Like political junkies waiting up for election returns (losers!), Silicon Valley folks, including tech journalists (losers!), are up this morning to await and then pounce on the long-expected IPO filing of Facebook.

But, several sources said, the social networking giant — as I have previously reported — will likely not file its copious documents until this afternoon, after the markets close, at the earliest.

In other words, my day is shot. Thanks, Dave Ebersman!

Sources said the filing could even possibly slip a day, as the company’s suits get busy with dotting all the I’s and crossing the T’s.

That’s unlikely, though — Facebook was actually founded the first Wednesday in February of 2004, like today eight years later.

Sentiment from the not-very-sentimental co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg? Awwwwwwww …

And, if those dudes rush, we might even see all the deets of the Silicon Valley darling’s finances and other info — including who’s got what shares and who doesn’t — earlier today. But don’t count on it.

That’s right — Facebook is sucking up even more of your precious time, and it is not even fun like beating your mother at Words With Friends or creepily poking old flames.

Facebook, Web 2.0′s most successful start-up, is expected to raise many billions of dollars on a valuation of tens of millions times that.

In other words, blah, blah, blah until we get the real numbers …

To send you off to IPO dreamland until then, here’s the genius viral video reading of the book “Go the F**k to Sleep,” read by Samuel L. Jackson:

MORE ON THE FACEBOOK IPO:

• Facebook’s Ad Business Is a $3 Billion Mystery
• Viral Video: Farewell to the No-IPO Mark Zuckerberg
• Zuckerberg Is the Billion-Share Man: Who Owns What, Who Makes What in the Facebook IPO
• Zuckerberg Tells Investors, “We Don’t Build Services to Make Money”
• Mobile Highlighted as Key Risk Factor (and Opportunity) in Facebook Filing
• Stop All That Poking: Facebook Filing Temporarily Crashes SEC Web Site
• Zynga Accounted for 12 Percent of Facebook’s Revenue in 2011
• Facebook Has 845 Million Users
• On Its Eighth Birthday, Facebook Files to Raise $5 Billion in Massive IPO (Get Your S-1 Here!)
• Go the F**k Back to Sleep, Silicon Valley: Facebook IPO Likely to File Later Today at Earliest
• Dude, Where’s My Facebook IPO Filing? (Ashton’s on Hold!)
• The Quiet Man: Meet the Less-Known Face of the Facebook IPO, CFO David Ebersman
• Facebook Board Meeting Today for Final IPO Okays
• Facebook (Eye)PO: Tracking the Truth of the Biggest Deal of Web 2.0
• Viral Graphic: Visualizing the Facebook IPO
• Is Facebook IPO on Track for Late May?
• IPO Watch: Facebook Hiring Brunswick to Help With Comms for Expected Public Offering
• Complete Facebook coverage

Ever heard of David Ebersman?

You should, and this week you will, given the self-effacing exec has been one of the prime movers behind what is expected to be the blockbuster offering of Web 2.0: Facebook’s impending IPO.

And while the social networking site’s movietastic co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and its smooth-operator COO Sheryl Sandberg have gotten a lion’s share of the attention related to the initial public offering, the former Genentech exec has been the key man in organizing the IPO itself.

The kickoff to that will be its filing, which could come as early as tomorrow morning. Whatever the valuation and raise numbers are — that’s still not clear — it will be a badillion-zillion-tons.

That has meant a lot of noise and also shuttling among investors, bankers, board and all the many other dueling constituencies to organize what will be one of the most scrutinized IPOs in tech.

And, so far, the reviews of Ebersman, 42, have been good, with most praising his lack of ego, quiet confidence, professional demeanor and, most importantly, no drama as important attributes of what has been a smooth process, considering.

“This is a three-ring circus no matter what,” said one source. “But Ebersman has made it much less so by making sure it was as steady as it could be.”

That calm tone has also made him a favorite of Zuckerberg and Sandberg, as well as key Facebook board members such as Marc Andreessen, since he arrived at the company in 2009. At Facebook, he has been in charge of its finance, facilities and information technology teams.

But Ebersman has been a lot more than that, said multiple sources, taking the key role in the IPO, but also spearheading critical long-term planning initiatives and instituting strict resource allocation systems.

That sounds dull, but regimenting Facebook has been one of the hallmarks of its growth and stability compared to many other competitors.

“He could easily be a CFO for a Fortune 10 company … but he is much more than an accountant or a deal maker, which are two flavors CFO usually come in,” said one person who is an admirer of his work. “But [Ebersman] is much more than that — really leading the charge on significant fronts related to the core of Facebook’s operations.”

Before coming to Facebook, the Brown University graduate was CFO of biotech giant Genentech, where he also held a number of other more operational positions, including being in charge of product development there. Ebersman was also a research analyst on Wall Street.

He came to Facebook’s attention via Genentech’s Art Levinson, who recommended Ebersman to the company, despite his lack of Internet experience. He replaced Gideon Yu, who left Facebook in a controversial departure.

While initially concerned that he had little digital experience, Zuckerberg, Sandberg and others were immediately convinced that Ebersman was just what they were looking for — low-key, smart and able to grok the complexity and challenges of Facebook.

“You can hire someone who knows the space or someone who is like a great athlete and can master anything,” said one person. “David is the latter.”

Ebersman has been given the ball a lot with regards to the IPO, even though all roads of decision-making essentially lead to Zuckerberg, who has been intent on not rushing to market in favor of growing the business.

Low-key was one of Zuckerberg’s main tenets of the IPO as it became more inevitable.

Thus, one of the first things Ebersman did was nix the “pitch” process by banks.

Instead, sources said, he worked with bankers individually to design an IPO that would work best for Facebook, including keeping fees low.

“It was very hands on and careful, with Ebersman crafting close relationships rather than pitting banks against each other,” said one source. “But it was also all about Facebook maintaining complete control.”

Still, Ebersman also did not veer away from a relatively traditional process — no wacky Google auction here.

“Facebook is not taking chances with this IPO and wants to make it a blue-chip event,” said another source. “Neither David nor the company thinks this is a time to be that experimental.”

But one thing is clear as the IPO machine now moves into high gear: “This is a team — specifically Mark, Sheryl and David — that is completely aligned going into this and David is the implementer they trust to make it so.”

We’ll see how it goes in what will be a busy time going forward.

One thing for sure — Ebersman, who plays bass guitar in a band in his spare time, will have little of that in orchestrating the biggest arrangement of Facebook’s life.

MORE ON THE FACEBOOK IPO:

• Facebook’s Ad Business Is a $3 Billion Mystery
• Viral Video: Farewell to the No-IPO Mark Zuckerberg
• Zuckerberg Is the Billion-Share Man: Who Owns What, Who Makes What in the Facebook IPO
• Zuckerberg Tells Investors, “We Don’t Build Services to Make Money”
• Mobile Highlighted as Key Risk Factor (and Opportunity) in Facebook Filing
• Stop All That Poking: Facebook Filing Temporarily Crashes SEC Web Site
• Zynga Accounted for 12 Percent of Facebook’s Revenue in 2011
• Facebook Has 845 Million Users
• On Its Eighth Birthday, Facebook Files to Raise $5 Billion in Massive IPO (Get Your S-1 Here!)
• Go the F**k Back to Sleep, Silicon Valley: Facebook IPO Likely to File Later Today at Earliest
• Dude, Where’s My Facebook IPO Filing? (Ashton’s on Hold!)
• The Quiet Man: Meet the Less-Known Face of the Facebook IPO, CFO David Ebersman
• Facebook Board Meeting Today for Final IPO Okays
• Facebook (Eye)PO: Tracking the Truth of the Biggest Deal of Web 2.0
• Viral Graphic: Visualizing the Facebook IPO
• Is Facebook IPO on Track for Late May?
• IPO Watch: Facebook Hiring Brunswick to Help With Comms for Expected Public Offering
• Complete Facebook coverage

According to multiple sources, the long-anticipated public offering of Facebook is now likely to come in the third week of May.

That means that the company must file its IPO documents within the next month, given that the review by the Securities and Exchange Commission usually takes about three to four months.

That’s if there are no issues, of course, such as a turbulent market or thornier-than-usual questions from regulators that require amending the filing.

Groupon, for example, filed for its IPO in early June, but did not go public until five months later in November.

The usual caveat on the late-May timing (even though I called 143 people on this one): This IPO planning could all change, in a New York minute, to another month.

In any case, the Facebook IPO is expected to be one of the largest Web offerings ever — with some reports saying the company will be raising $10 billion on a $100 billion valuation. (The valuation and raise, sources tell me, will be much lower.)

That amount is presumably to match its huge consumer growth and revenue explosion. Users now number 800 million — a figure that is likely to hit one billion this year. And revenue, which was reportedly close to $4 billion in 2011, is expected to be higher by another third in 2012.

Facebook will need such oomph if it is to impress investors, although the social networking site’s leadership is still warning that its focus is products over dollars.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal last week, for example, co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg hedged the point, even as he sang his same familiar strategic tune of the last few years.

“The thing to take away isn’t that we don’t care [about business]. People for years were asking me why aren’t we trying to make more money,” he said. “I would say I’m trying to build a business for the long term and it was clearly the right strategy.”

While admirably I’ll-row-my-way in tone, Zuckerberg needs a public offering heft more than ever, as Facebook’s battles with rivals — most especially Google — escalate.

Just last week, the monocratically-inclined search giant ham-handedly shoved its own social networking service, Google+, into its results, in a move that could severely disadvantage Facebook.

Thus, into the Wall Street breach, to get a giant pile of dough to fight back!

But, unlike Google’s more kookified 2004 IPO, sources said Facebook’s is probably going to hew to a more traditional offering script.

That is likely to include a hefty consortium of irksome investment bankers — think firms like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on top of the filings, and a spate of smaller ones (Allen & Co.) below, and you have the approximately accurate idea.

And, while shot-caller-in-chief Zuckerberg will be the one key voice in the IPO, the man to watch has been and will be CFO David Ebersman.

The longtime Genentech exec, who came to Facebook in 2009, has been doing all the heavy lifting in preparation for the IPO, said sources, and will continue to do so.

Facebook declined to comment (but I would too, if I were them).

Facebook picked a new CFO quietly, after its cloddish public parting with longtime top financial exec Gideon Yu earlier this year.

Facebook said in late March it was looking for a CFO with “public company experience,” and it seems to have gotten one in former Genentech CFO David Ebersman.

(He is pictured here–is it just me or does he look a lot like an older version of the man he will be reporting to, Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg?)

It’s an interesting choice of a high-profile exec for the job at the headed-for-an-IPO-someday social-networking company, and one from outside the Web sector.

And, indeed, with the addition of Ebersman, Facebook inches ever closer to a public offering.

It is also a good move for Ebersman, who has been at the biotech firm for almost 15 years. But the South San Francisco-based Genentech was acquired in March by Hoffman-La Roche, which already has a CFO.

Ebersman, who will formally start in September, will oversee Facebook’s finance, accounting, investor relations and real estate functions and will also be part of the Palo Alto, Calif., company’s executive management team.

Former Netscape exec and VC Peter Currie has served as a stand-in for Yu since he left, although has not been an active financial exec.

Here is the full press release from Facebook:

PALO ALTO, Calif.–June 29, 2009–Facebook today announced that David Ebersman, the former executive vice president and chief financial officer (CFO) of Genentech, the pioneering biotechnology firm recently acquired by Roche, will become the company’s chief financial officer.

Ebersman will report to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Founder Mark Zuckerberg. He will oversee Facebook’s finance, accounting, investor relations, and real estate functions. He also becomes a part of the company’s executive management team, which directs all aspects of company strategy, planning and operations. Ebersman will formally start in September 2009.

“We received a lot of interest in the CFO position and had the opportunity to meet with many impressive candidates,” said Mark Zuckerberg. “We quickly recognized that David was the right person for Facebook. He was Genentech’s CFO while revenue tripled, and his success in scaling the finance organization of a fast growing company will be important to Facebook.”

“After meeting with Mark and the rest of the team, I was thoroughly impressed with everyone’s drive and sense of purpose to help people connect and share,“ noted Ebersman. “Mark is constantly pushing the company forward and he’s assembled a world-class team that is achieving remarkable results both for its users and as a business. I’m excited to join this effort and this new industry.”

Ebersman worked at Genentech for nearly 15 years. He served as the firm’s executive vice president and CFO from 2006 through April 2009, when Roche Group acquired the company. Prior to joining the company’s finance organization, he was senior vice president of Product Operations. He joined Genentech as a business development analyst. Previously, he was a research analyst at Oppenheimer & Company Inc.