Facebook’s record-breaking IPO put into perspective
Facebook made its initial public offering last Friday and while it didn’t go as smoothly as many had hoped, the offering was still the largest of its kind. Facebook stock began trading at $42 on Friday before closing just above $38, the IPO price set by bankers the night before. The stock has since slid further, touching $30 in pre-market trading on Wednesday morning, and media coverage has turned sour as investors continue to balk. All things considered, however, the $16 billion Facebook raised on Friday smashed Google’s earlier record by more than eight times and made Facebook’s offering the biggest in Internet IPO history. To put things in perspective as Facebook’s stock battles to climb back to the $38 mark and beyond, The New York Times released an interactive comparison tool that shows us all of the things Facebook’s $105 billion IPO-day market capitalization is worth more than. One example: The Hershey Company, T. Rowe Price, The Gap, Marriott International, Best Buy, Southwest Airlines, Trip Advisor, Safeway, Netflix, Williams-Sonoma, Abercrombie & Fitch, Big Lots, Buffalo Wild Wings, TiVo, Papa John’s, Earthlink and Shutterfly… combined.
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