Facebook has bumped up the price it planned to charge for shares at is stock market debut, giving the leading social network a value that could top US$100 billion, according to reports on Monday.
Facebook will price its initial public offering (IPO) from US$34 to US$38 per share instead of the US$28 to US$35 range indicated in paperwork filed earlier this month with US regulators, according to CNBC and the Wall Street Journal.
The raised IPO share price reflected confidence in demand for Facebook stock and gave the Menlo Park, California-based company a value between US$93 and US$104 billion.
At the higher end of the price range, Facebook would raise nearly US$15 billion through the stock sale, with a large chunk of the cash going to its early backers and employees compensated with stock.
Facebook was already assured of becoming the most valuable US Web company at the time of an IPO, topping Google’s US$23 billion valuation in 2004.
Facebook will trade under the symbol “FB” on the technology-heavy NASDAQ. Trading was expected to be launched on Friday, according to news reports.
Meanwhile, half of Americans think Facebook is a passing fad, according to the results of a new Associated Press-CNBC poll. And, in the run-up to the social network’s IPO, half of Americans also say the social network’s expected asking price is too high.
Just a third of those surveyed think the company’s expected value is appropriate, while 50 percent say it is too high. Those who invest in the stock market are more likely to see Facebook as overvalued, 58 percent said. About three in 10 investors say the expected value of shares is fair.
However, price worries would not necessarily stop would-be investors. Half the people surveyed say they think Facebook is a good bet, while 31 percent do not. The rest are not sure. Americans who invest in stocks roughly agree, although investors who are more “active” — those who have changed their holdings in the past month — are more negative. Nearly 40 percent say Facebook would not be a good investment.
The public overall is similarly divided on the company’s future. Just under half of adults (46 percent) predict a short timeline for Facebook, while 43 percent say it has staying power.
The Associated Press-CNBC Poll was conducted from May 3 to Monday last week by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It involved landline and mobile telephone interviews with 1,004 adults across the US and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
DAMAGE REPORT: Global central banks are assessing war-driven inflation risks as the law of unintended consequences careens around the world, spiking oil prices Central banks from Washington to London and from Jakarta to Taipei are about to make their first assessments of economic damage after more than two weeks of conflict between the US and Iran. Decisions this week encompassing every member of the G7 and eight of the world’s 10 most-traded currency jurisdictions are likely to confirm to investors that the specter of a new inflation shock is already worrying enough to prompt heightened caution. The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to do exactly what everyone anticipated weeks ahead of its March 17-18 policy gathering: hold rates steady. The narrative surrounding that
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) share of the global foundry market rose to almost 70 percent last year amid booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI), market information advisory firm TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said on Thursday. The contract chipmaker posted US$122.54 billion in revenue, up 36.1 percent from a year earlier, accounting for 69.9 percent of the global market, TrendForce said. Its share was up from 64.4 percent in 2024, it said. TSMC’s closest rival, Samsung Electronics, was a distant second, posting US$12.63 billion in sales, down 3.9 percent from a year earlier, for a 7.2 percent share of the global market. In the
At a massive shipyard in North Vancouver, Canadian workers grind metal beams for a powerful new icebreaker crucial to cementing the country’s presence in the increasingly contested arctic. Icebreakers are specialized, expensive vessels able to navigate in the frozen far north. And “this is the crown jewel,” said Eddie Schehr, vice president of production at the Seaspan shipyard. For Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who heads to Norway next Friday to observe arctic defense drills involving troops from 14 NATO states, Canada’s extreme north has emerged as a strategic priority. “Canada is and forever will be an Arctic nation,” he said ahead of
Chinese entrepreneur Frank Gao used to spend long hours running his social media accounts but now outsources the chore to artificial intelligence (AI) agent tool OpenClaw, which is taking China by storm despite official warnings over cybersecurity. OpenClaw, created in November by an Austrian coder, differs from bots such as ChatGPT because it can execute real-life tasks such as sending e-mails, organizing files or even booking flight tickets. “Since January, I’ve spent hours on the lobster every day,” Gao said in an interview, referring to OpenClaw’s red crustacean mascot. “We’re family.” After downloading OpenClaw, users connect it to artificial intelligence models of their
RSS