Facebook IPO: ‘FB’ on Nasdaq or NYSE?
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Questions, questions, there are so many questions surrounding Facebook’s expected initial public offering.
Of course, the main question is when will the world’s largest social network file its S-1 paperwork for its IPO. Well, this much we know — it isn’t happening this morning as was widely expected.
Kara Swisher, over at the website AllThingsD, bluntly called the salivating tech press out on their expectation of an early Wednesday IPO filing (with a little help from Samuel L. Jackson). Swisher reported that her sources say Facebook’s IPO will arrive Wednesday afternoon at the earliest. So it’ll arrive today or it won’t — got that?
But other questions abound too. Such as how big will the IPO be? For months rumors have pointed to a Facebook IPO of about $10 billion, which would place the company at a valuation of about $100 billion. But on Tuesday, the website International Financing Review reported that Facebook is instead planning on an IPO worth about $5 billion instead.
Like Swisher, the IFR gave itself an out in case $5 billion isn’t the number after all, stating the while $5 billion is ‘less than anticipated’ the IPO ‘could be increased to satisfy ultimate investor demand.’
Another question is where Facebook’s stock will trade — the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq. Both Bloomberg Businessweek and the New York Post have documented the two stock markets essentially fighting to lure Facebook.
So what’s at stake for the NYSE and Nasdaq? ‘Winning it means more fees, a boost in trading and the chance to link their brand with the largest social networking site in the world,’ Bloomberg Businessweek said.
‘It’s a very heated battle,’ the New York Post quoted Larry Tabb, founder of the capital markets advisory firm Tabb Group, as saying. Tabb told the Post that competition between the two markets is too close to call. So far, Facebook hasn’t said where it’s shares will pop up when they do.
Another question, and one the Post says it has an answer to, is what will Facebook’s ticker symbol be — Fbok, FBK, Book, FceB? According to the newspaper, it won’t be any of those. Instead, it will be ‘FB,’ the Post says.
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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles
Nathan Olivarez-Giles on Google+