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Facebook valued at up to $95b

Facebook, the company that turned the social Web into a cultural and business phenomenon, is worth as much as $95 billion, according to the price range for its upcoming initial public offering of stock.

Facebook’s IPO, expected in a couple of weeks, would be the biggest ever for an Internet company. Facebook disclosed the price range of $28 to $35 per share in a regulatory filing on Thursday.

At the high end, Facebook and its current shareholders could raise as much as $13.58 billion — far more than the $1.9 billion raised in the 2004 offering for current Internet IPO record-holder Google. The IPO valued the company at $23 billion. Google is now worth about $200 billion.

Facebook’s IPO has been highly anticipated, not just because of how much money it will raise but because Facebook itself is so popular. The world’s largest online social network has more than 900 million users. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who turns 28 this month, has emerged as a wunderkind leader who’s guided Facebook through unprecedented growth from its scrappy start as an online hangout for Harvard students.

Facebook’s offering values the company at $76 billion to $95 billion, based on the expected number of Facebook shares following the IPO. That’s about 2.74 billion, according to Renaissance Capital, an IPO investment adviser. The value is set by multiplying the number of shares by the expected stock price.

Facebook’s next step is an “IPO road show,” where executives talk to potential investors about why they should invest in the stock. On Thursday, Facebook posted a version of its road show online, with appearances from Zuckerberg; Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg; finance chief David Ebersman and other executives. The company said that putting the road show online was consistent with its focus on “authentic, engaging information.”

“We think people’s lives will be better and really that the whole world will function better when there is more information and understanding out there,” Zuckerberg says in the video, wearing a T-shirt and jeans as he usually does.

AP