SAN FRANCISCO (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Investors are paying as much as $76 per share as they attempt to get in ahead of the much-hyped initial public offering (IPO) of popular social networking website Facebook.
According to the Financial Times, the investor activity implies a valuation for the privately-held company of more than $33 billion, giving it a higher market capitalization higher than other major tech companies such as Yahoo ($18 billion) and eBay ($30 billion).
The purchased stocks are not being issued directly by the company, but by employees or investors who have a stake in the company.
The implied valuation is leading some analysts to suggest that the Facebook IPO may be the biggest tech stock offering since Google's monster $1.67 billion debut in 2004.
The actual date of the IPO is still a matter of some conjecture, although there have been intimations that the offering might not take place until 2011. Facebook and other hot tech companies such as Twitter, have delayed their IPOs due in part to ongoing instability in the stock market. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
