Facebook is the hottest Internet company to hit the stock market since Google went public in 2004. The Silicon Valley companies, located seven miles apart, also happen to be locked in a bitter battle for Web surfers’ allegiance and online advertisers’ money.
The duel is likely to intensify now that the IPO has given Facebook Inc.’s social network billions of dollars to battle Google Inc.’s dominant search engine.
Here’s the two rivals stack up, based on the latest available data:
ANNUAL REVENUE: Google, $38 billion; Facebook, $3.7 billion.
ADVERTISING REVENUE: Google, $36.5 billion; Facebook, $3.2 billion.
ANNUAL NET INCOME: Google, $9.7 billion; Facebook, $668 million.
SOCIAL NETWORKING USERS: Facebook, more than 900 million; Google, more than 170 million.
EMPLOYEES (as of March 31): Google, 33,100; Facebook, 3,500.
CEO: Google, co-founder Larry Page; Facebook, co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.
AMOUNT RAISED IN IPO: Google, $1.67 billion; Facebook, $16 billion. Figures include shares sold by early investors and exclude bankers’ option to sell more shares.
IPO STOCK PRICE: Google, $85; Facebook, $38.
MARKET VALUATION AT DEBUT: Google, $24.6 billion; Facebook, $104 billion.
DATE OF STOCK MARKET DEBUT: Google, Aug. 19, 2004; Facebook, May 18, 2012.
CLOSING PRICE OF STOCK ON FIRST DAY OF TRADING AND PERCENTAGE GAIN: Google, up 18 percent to $100.34; Facebook, up less than 1 percent to $38.23.
CURRENT MARKET VALUE: Google, $196 billion; Facebook, $105 billion.
Source: Regulatory filings, Associated Press research