China’s Weibo sets IPO share price low at $17 per share
The microblogging powerhouse sells nearly a quarter less shares than anticipated.
China's Twitter-like microblogging behemoth Weibo priced its initial public offering on Wednesday at $17 per share, according to The Wall Street Journal. This price is on the low end of the company's range, which was set between $17 and $19.
Weibo also sold fewer shares than expected. The company intended to sell 20 million shares but only sold 16.8 million. According to the Journal, this means it raised $285.6 million without the option for additional stocks and is reportedly valued at $3.46 billion.
China is a blogging and microblogging powerhouse with hundreds of millions of people going to these sites daily. Most US-based social networks are banned in the country, so people use Weibo and messaging services like WeChat. Weibo reportedly has more than 130 million active users.
While millions of people use Weibo, it's shown weak financial gains so far this year. According to CNN, the company lost almost $48 million in the first quarter, which is nearly double from the same period a year ago.
Weibo will kick off trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange on Thursday under the ticker symbol WB.