Facebook IPO third-largest in US history
Starting price of US$38 a share places social network ahead of General Motors, behind only Visa and Enel SpA.
Social network Facebook is anticipated to raise US$16bn at its initial public offering today, making it the largest ever IPO for a technology company and the third-largest ever on US soil.
The valuation comes from a starting share price of $38, putting the company behind only credit card firm Visa and Italian power company Enel SpA. The 2010 float of motoring giant General Motors raised $15.8bn while Google’s IPO eight years ago raised $1.67bn.
Shares in Facebook will begin trading at 11am Eastern Time today (4pm BST), with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s (pictured) estimated $18.95bn fortune expected to soar.
Google’s market cap at the time of flotation was $23bn, while Facebook – after increasing the size of the float by close to 25% earlier this week – is expected to be valued at $104bn. Zynga raised $1bn in a December flotation which valued the company at nine times that amount.
The IPO may convince Facebook to speed up its online gambling plans, revealed exclusively by eGaming Review in November last year, with tentative preparations in place to open up real-money gambling on a trial basis in the United Kingdom.
Last August saw the company relax its egaming advertising restrictions, although actual gambling games on the network remain restricted to freeplay or virtual credits.
This has not stopped a number of egaming operators and service providers go live with Facebook apps of their own, with Chiligaming launching a free-to-play poker network last year and IGT buying existing Facebook games developer Double Down Interactive in January for a sum which could rise as high as $500m.
Earlier this week Double Down added Texas Hold’Em Poker to its Facebook casino, while yesterday saw social games publisher Hooplo Media launch games based on athlete Usain Bolt and footballer Cristiano Ronaldo.
(Photo courtesy of Robert Scoble under Creative Commons licence)