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Today is the big day that many have been waiting for; Facebook has taken its shares public, allowing anyone and everyone to buy a slice of its success.
By offering shares to the public, the social network that started off life as an exclusive social site for members of Harvard University is now worth an estimated $104 billion.
Shares will be priced at $38 (£24) each and will be sold on the Nasdaq Global Select Market as of today. If you’re looking to get in on the action, you’ll need to look for the ‘FB’ symbol to find them.
This is the initial offering of shares (IPO), and there may be more to come. However, those in the investment and shares business will know that now is the time to buy in, before the company gets even bigger and prices skyrocket.
“Facebook today announced the pricing of its initial public offering [IPO] of 421,233,615 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $38 per share,” a company statement said.
“Facebook is offering 180,000,000 shares of Class A common stock and selling stockholders are offering 241,233,615 shares of Class A common stock. Closing of the offering is expected to occur on May 22, 2012, subject to customary closing conditions.”
So as you can see there are plenty to round, however we’re pretty certain they’ll all be snapped up pretty quickly. Analysts have already reported that the closing price for shares on today, the first day, will likely to have risen from $38 to $54, so by buying enough initially you could make a tidy profit from just day 1.
The public won’t be the only ones benefitting from the IPO – CEO and Founder Mark Zuckerberg is expected to make a whopping $18 billion from the process.
Will you be buying a piece of Facebook today or any time soon? Let us know.
Let us know your thoughts on our comments below or via our @Gadget_Helpline Twitter page or Official Facebook group.
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