ATD: Investors told Facebook IPO pricing to be $34 to $38
All Things Digital's Kara Swisher cites unnamed sources in reporting the range, which on the high end could make the company's value close to $100 billion, fully diluted.
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Investors are being told Facebook's IPO price range will be from $34 to $38, making its highest valuation close to $100 billion, fully diluted, All Things Digital's Kara Swisher reported Monday evening, citing unnamed sources.
The sources confirmed that official pricing will take place Thursday, with the IPO on Friday under the "FB" ticker symbol, Swisher said. Earlier today, Bloomberg reported that Facebook might stop taking investor orders by tomorrow instead of Thursday, raising the possibility that the offering might take place earlier than expected.
Also earlier today, CNNMoney markets writer Maureen Farrell tweeted that an unnamed source told her Facebook's underwriters would raise the company's initial offering price to a range of $35 to $40 tomorrow, which on the high end would make Facebook worth $108 billion.
In an SEC filing May 3, the company set an IPO price of $28 to $35 a share, valuing it at as much as $96 billion and ranking it as the largest Internet IPO and one of the largest IPOs in history, according to Renaissance Capital. Still, that price is a tick lower than the initial $100 billion valuation many had expected.
Update, 7:27 p.m. PT: Still later on Monday, ATD parent site The Wall Street Journal had this to say on the matter:
Late Monday, the social network raised the price range for its IPO to $34 to $38 a share, from $28 to $35 a share, said a person familiar with the matter, in a sign of investor appetite for the offering. The Menlo Park, Calif., company's initial price range put Facebook's valuation at $77 billion to $96 billion, but that rises to $93 billion to $104 billion under the new price range, said the person familiar with the matter, as investor interest ramps up.