The social-networking site raises some $16 billion for the company and early investors. Trading starts Friday morning and may be frenzied. But questions remain. Founder Mark Zuckerberg's stake is worth about $19 billion.
Facebook, the social-networking site that lets some 500 million people trade messages, pictures and videos every day, raised $16 billion for its original stockholders and investors when 421.2 million shares were priced at $38 a share late Thursday.
The price makes this the largest Internet IPO ever. It values the company at $104.1 billion, making Facebook the 40th-most-valuable company in the world, ahead of Amazon.com (AMZN 0.00%) and Qualcomm (QCOM 0.00%) but just behind PepsiCo (PEP 0.00%). It makes founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg worth some $19.1 billion on the basis of his Facebook holdings alone -- at just 28.
The pricing -- which is what Facebook and selling shareholders will get for their shares -- comes as the U.S. stock slumped in late-day trading. The Dow Jones industrials ($INDU -1.24%) fell 156 points.
The pricing is the last step before the stock can be traded on U.S. financial markets. Trading in Facebook shares is expected to start at 11 a.m. ET Friday on the Nasdaq system with the ticker FB. What could not be known with certainty late today was where the stock would open, much less where it would close. But look for a lot of volatility.
Investor interest in the stock is enormous. Many brokerages marketing shares stopped taking orders on Wednesday. Road shows -- the presentations the company put on around the country to explain the stock to potential investors -- were packed affairs.
0 comments:
Post a Comment