Facebook Sets IPO Price, Values Company at $86 Billion

Facebook announced on Thursday an estimated price range for its initial public offering (IPO). The company said in regulatory filings that its estimated IPO price will be US$28 to $35 per share, which would raise $10.6 billion in cash and value the company at $86 billion.

Mark Zuckerberg - Made of Money

Mark Zuckerberg—Made of Money
(With help from Shutterstock)

There has been a lot of speculation about Facebook’s IPO valuation, which figures as high as $100 billion being tossed around over the last 12-18 months. Thursday’s filing is the first official word from the social networking giant on that value.

The company didn’t name a date for its IPO, but The New York Times reported that Facebook could begin trading on May 17th or 18th following a “road show” that is expected to last eight or nine days—a road show is the name of the process of making presentations to big investors and institutions ahead of an IPO.

Facebook will be trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol of FB. If the company does hit the $28-$35 range on its IPO, it will be the largest Internet-related IPO in history, eclipsing even that of Google, which debuted in 2004 with a valuation of some $23 billion.