Facebook's valuation put at $104 billion: Report

Facebook has raised the price range for its initial public offering to $34-38 a share, which puts the valuation of the social networking site at about $104 billion, says a media report.



"Late Monday, the social network raised the price range for its IPO to $34 to $38 a share, from $28 to $35 a share, in a sign of investor appetite for the offering," The Wall Street Journal reported citing a source.

Earlier this month, Facebook, in a regulatory filing, said it will sell 337.41 million shares and the initial public offering price will be between $28 and $35 per share. At this range, the company will be valued at between $77 billion to $96 billion.

However, as per the new price range, Facebook would be valued at $93 billion to $104 billion, the report noted.

Taking into account the top range of the stock price, Facebook is expected to raise about $12 billion through the IPO as against $11 billion projected earlier.

Facebook is expected to go public on May 18 and the stock will be listed on Nasdaq under the symbol 'FB'.

Depending on the final value, the IPO would be one of the largest of a US firm on Wall Street, behind the 2008 offering of Visa ($17.8 billion) and General Motors in 2010 ($15.7 billion), according to Renaissance Capital.

It's much anticipated IPO is expected to shadow that of other tech giants like Google which had raised $1.9 billion and valued the company at about $23 billion when it went public in 2004.

Facebook's 27-year-old CEO Mark Zuckerberg is planning to sell 30.2 million shares. He plans to use the proceeds to cover taxes.

Other stockholders who would be offering shares include the social network's early investors such as James Breyer of the venture capital firm Accel Partners, who's offering 38.2 million shares. Goldman Sachs is unloading 20 per cent of its stake, or 13.2 million shares.

Zuckerberg would retain voting control of 58.8 per cent of the company after the IPO.

With 901 million users as of March 31, 2012, Facebook is the most popular social networking site in the world and a magnet for advertisers.