Founder Mark Zuckerberg rang the opening bell at Nasdaq to initiate the much awaited trading of Facebook on the exchange.The shares of Facebook opened at USD 42.05, up by nearly eleven percent from the Initial Public Offering (IPO) price of USD 38 per share.
The shares of Facebook are trading under the symbol ‘FB’ on Nasdaq. World’s largest social networking website Facebook began trading today at 1500 GMT (11 am in United States of America).
Through its IPO, Facebook has sold 18 percent at a total valuation of USD 104 billion.
When Microsoft had acquired a 1.6 percent stake in 2007, the valuation of Facebook was USD 15 billion. This rose to USD 50 billion when Goldman Sachs infused a sum of USD 450 million.
On the day of IPO listing, Apple got a valuation of USD 1.7 billion in 1980, Microsoft USD 640 million in 1986 and Google got USD 23 billion in 2004. The listing has already made history with its astounding market capitalization of USD 104.18 billion within 43 minutes of listing.
According to a recent report by Sam Hamdeh, PrivCo Founder and CEO, Zuckerberg will have to pay an amount of USD 903 million towards national taxes.
The key shareholders of Facebook are Mark Zuckerberg, Accel Partners and Digi Sky Tech who hold 24%, 10% and 10% respectively.
Boasting of a user base of 800 million out of a total world internet user base of 2 billion, Facebook business model is built around user engagement and advertisement programs. Nearly, 350 million users access Facebook from their mobile phone.
On an average, a user on Facebook has 130 friends. Surprisingly, 80 percent of the Facebook users are not from United States of America. There are nearly 3000 employees on its payroll. Its valuation of USD 100 billion is equivalent to twice the GDP of Sri Lanka.