("AT A GLANCE: Facebook IPO Prices At $38/Share", published at
5:17 p.m. EDT, misstated the age of Mark Zuckerberg. The correct
version follows.)
THE EVENT: Facebook Inc. (FB) set its final price at $38 a
share, as the social network gets ready for its historic initial
public offering Friday.
The social network priced at the top end of the range it set
earlier this week. Facebook is valued at $104 billion, the
biggest-ever valuation by a U.S. company at the time of its
offering.
HIGHLIGHTS:
Nasdaq told traders Thursday that Facebook shares are expected
to be released for trading at approximately 11 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT)
Friday. The IPO will be released for quotation at about 10:45 a.m.
in the run-up to open trading. The exchange also said it will hold
a market-wide conference call at 10:15 a.m. to keep the industry
informed on the IPO. The call will last two hours.
Financial advisers at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney have been told
their allocation of shares of Facebook for clients has been raised
to a maximum of 5,000 per account, from roughly 500, according to
people familiar with the situation.
Here's a look how much Chairman and Chief Executive Mark
Zuckerberg's 533.8 million shares are worth: $20.3 billion. "Zuck,"
as he's known to friends and family, launched Facebook from his
Harvard dorm room in 2004. The hoodie-wearing college dropout is
now one of the richest people in the world. He will be celebrating
his birthday in style--he turned 28 on May 14.
It is a testament to the stupendous wealth of megacap tech
companies that Facebook joins the club as one of its poorer
members. At the $38-a-share offer price, Facebook itself will raise
nearly $7 billion. Add cash already on its balance sheet, and it
begins life as a public company with about $11 billion total. About
60% of the cash raised in the social network's IPO is going
straight to selling shareholders, not to the company.
Let's put Facebook's overall market value of $104 billion in
perspective. Only 21 companies in the S&P 500 have higher
market caps. Valuation puts Facebook behind Apple, Microsoft,
Google and Intel, but above Amazon, Cisco Systems and Disney --each
of which had 10 times more sales than Facebook in their most recent
fiscal years. Looked at another way: Facebook is considered more
valuable than the combined worth of eBay, Yahoo, Groupon, LinkedIn,
Netflix, IAC/InterActiveCorp, AOL, Zynga and Pandora Media. You
decide which you would rather own.
Market watchers are weighing in. Both retail and institutional
investors will want to add to their positions in Facebook, which
should drive demand for the stock once it begins trading, said Ben
Holmes, president of IPO research firm Morningnotes.com. "It's like
Visa. It's a widely held, superbly oversubscribed offering," said
Holmes of the IPO. "But at the end of the day, there isn't enough
stock to go around...this is going to be a really beautiful
deal."
-By Linda Fung, Dow Jones Newswires, 212 416 2163,
linda.fing@dowjones.com.