Facebook announced on Thursday afternoon that it has set the price of its initial public offering.
According to a press release, the company will sell 421,233,615 shares of its common stock at $38 per share.
Facebook will raise $16 billion, making this the largest IPO of an Internet company. Facebook”s value is now $104.12 billion.
Shares will begin trading on the NASDAQ on Friday under the ticker symbol “FB.”
The social network on Wednesday upped the range of the offering by 25 percent. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Facebook set a new target of $34 to $38 per share, up from $28 to $35.
According to Reuters, Facebook”s IPO is larger than those of computer behemoths HP and Dell, combined. Google, which began publicly trading in 2004, raised only $1.67 billion in its IPO.
Facebook”s public debut is also likely to outshine that of nearly every other public company on the planet. Writes the AP, “Facebook is the third-highest valued company to ever go public, according to data from Dealogic, a financial data provider. Only the two Chinese banks have been worth more.”
Many expect the stock to enjoy a strong first day of trading.
From TechCrunch:
Because Facebook priced at the higher end of its $34 to $38 price range, this suggests that there will unsurprisingly be a lot of demand tomorrow. Bankers will want to price the deal so that there’s a bit of a pop for good publicity, but Facebook won’t want to underprice the deal so much that they leave billions of dollars on the table.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to clarify that Google raised$1.67 billion in its IPO.
Check out the slideshow (below) to see how Facebook”s IPO compares to the biggest Internet IPOs of the last decade.
Google: $1.67 Billion
Google raised $1.67 billion in its August 2004 IPO, valuing the company at $23 billion. As of May 15, 2012, Google was worth $199.2 billion.
Yandex: $1.3 Billion
The Russian search engine and web company raised $1.3 billion went it went public in May 2011, giving it a valuation of around $8 billion. As of May 15, 2012, it had a market capitalization of $37.5 billion.
Shanda Games Ltd.: $1.04 Billion
Shanda Games, a Chinese online gaming company, raised $1.04 billion when it went public in Sept. 2009. That month, it had a market capitalization of $976.95 million, according to data from YCharts.
As of May 15, 2012, the company had a market capitalization of $1.3 billion.
Zynga: $1 Billion
Social gaming company Zynga raised $1 billion in its IPO in December, 2011, then the biggest web-related IPO since Google, according to the Associated Press.
Zynga had a valuation of $7 billion before it began trading on the Nasdaq on December 16. As of May 15, 2012, the company had a market capitalization of $6.31 billion.
Giant Interactive Group Inc.: $887 million
Giant Interactive Group, a Chinese online gaming company, raised $887 million when it went public in October 2007. In December of that year, the company had a market capitalization of $3.358 billion, according to data from YCharts.
As of May 15, 2012, the company was valued at $1.2 billion.
RenRen: $743 Million
RenRen, the Chinese social networking site, raised $743 million in its IPO in May 2011, according to Reuters.
At the end of its first day of trading, the company had a market value of $7.4 billion.
As of May 15, 2012, RenRen”s market capitalization stood at $2.3 billion.
Groupon: $700 Million
The daily deals site raised $700 million in its IPO in November 2011, valuing the company at nearly $13 billion.
As of May 15, 2012, Groupon”s value was $7.85 billion.
Vonage: $531 million
Vonage, the VoIP company, raised $531 million when it went public in May 2006, CNBC reports. The next month, it had a market capitalization of $1.338 billion, according to data from YCharts.
As of May 16, 2012, Vonage had a value of $387.1 million.
Orbitz Worldwide Inc.: $510 Million
Orbitz, the online travel company, raised $510 million when it went public in July 2007. As of May 15, 2012, the company had a market capitalization of $393.05 million.
Flip through some early reactions from tweeters after Facebook announced its IPO pricing.
Susan Orlean
Tim Bradshaw
Peter Lauria
Cliff Hagen
Ken Fisher
Rafat Ali
Joseph Weisenthal
Henry Blodget
Eddy Elfenbein
Joshua Green