After months of paperwork, popularity, and speculation, Facebook has set its final IPO price at $38 a share. With this price, the social network will raise $16 billion, making it the largest tech IPO in history and the third largest U.S. IPO ever. In March 2008, Visa raised $19.7 million and automaker General Motors raised $18.1 billion in November 2010, according to rankings by Thomson Reuters.
Facebook is waiting for the Securities and Exchange Commission to declare its IPO effective, which would be the formal green light the company and its underwriters need before they can sell shares to outside buyers. Shares were released on Thursday night to buyers who can resell them on the open market starting on Friday. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to sell 30.2 million shares in the IPO offering, which will give him a net of $1.1 billion.
Instead of Zuckerberg pocketing the cash, the company said he will use the “substantial majority” of the windfall to pay the massive tax bill he’ll be hit with. After the offering, Zuckerberg will hold 503.6 million shares, or 31 percent of Facebook. The stake is worth $19.1 billion.
