{"id":12518,"date":"2012-05-15T11:27:55","date_gmt":"2012-05-15T09:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=12518"},"modified":"2012-05-15T14:49:31","modified_gmt":"2012-05-15T12:49:31","slug":"facebook-hits-ipo-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/internet\/12518\/facebook-hits-ipo-target\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook hits IPO target"},"content":{"rendered":"

Facebook Inc<\/a> has raised the price range on its initial public offering to $34 to $38 a share in response to strong demand, a source familiar with the situation said, giving the No.1 social network a valuation exceeding $100 billion.<\/p>\n

At the mid-point of $36, Facebook would raise $12.1 billion by selling 337.4 million shares. The company founded in a Harvard dorm room by Mark Zuckerberg<\/a>, who turned 28 on Monday, had originally aimed for $28 to $35 a share.<\/p>\n

Wall Street had expected the company to increase the price range, with investors keen to get in on Silicon Valley’s largest ever IPO that eclipses Google Inc’s<\/a> 2004 debut. Its roadshow began last week and has drawn crowds.<\/p>\n

The company plans to close the books on its IPO on Tuesday, two days ahead of schedule and in a signal that the landmark initial share sale is drumming up strong demand, a second source familiar with the deal told Reuters earlier.<\/p>\n

The social network is scheduled on Thursday to price its shares, then begin trading on Friday.<\/p>\n

The IPO is already “well oversubscribed,” which is why the company is closing its books earlier than anticipated, the source said.<\/p>\n

The raised price range marks an increase of 21 percent on the lower end. A hike of more than 20 percent typically means the company would have to file an amendment with the Securities and Exchange Commission.<\/p>\n

Company spokesman Jonny Thaw declined to comment on Monday.<\/p>\n

The IPO comes amid concerns from some investors that Facebook hasn’t yet figured out a way to make money from an increasing number of users who access the social network on mobile devices such as smartphones.<\/p>\n

Facebook will continue with its roadshow for the rest of the week, said a third source familiar with the deal, and investors who haven’t yet attended a roadshow presentation will still be able to place orders.<\/p>\n

Company executives met with prospective investors in Chicago on Monday and are slated to travel to Kansas City and Denver, before returning to Menlo Park, California, where Facebook is headquartered.<\/p>\n

A host of Wall Street banks are underwriting Facebook’s offering, with Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs serving as leads. Facebook will trade on Nasdaq<\/a> under the symbol FB.<\/p>\n

CNBC reported the higher price range earlier, citing sources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facebook Inc has raised the price range on its initial public offering to $34 to $38 a share in response to strong demand, a source familiar with the situation said, giving the No.1 social network a valuation exceeding $100 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":12371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9882],"tags":[25,45,155,1244],"class_list":["post-12518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","tag-active","tag-facebook","tag-ipo","tag-mark-zuckerberg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12518"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12544,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12518\/revisions\/12544"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}