Facebook just took another giant step toward going public: The world’s largest and most popular social networking company set the minimum price it will trade per share at $28 and maximum at $35, giving the entire company a valuation between $77 billion to $96 billion, according to updated documentation it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.
In total, Facebook will sell 337,415,352 shares, raising up to $13.6 billion, according to the revised SEC documents.
Upwards of 30 million of those shares will be sold by Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally, the new documents reveal, netting him nearly $1 billion.
Zuckerberg will retain control of far more shares than that though, giving him a dominant stake of 57.3 percent ownership in his company worth $18.7 billion if the company trades at the high, $35 per share range.
Even in the off chance the company trades at its minimum price (unlikely), it will still make Facebook the most valuable technology company to go public in history, beating Google’s $23 billion valuation when the search company went public in 2004.
Facebook will trade on the NASDAQ but no date has yet been set for when it will begin to be traded. Many in the financial and tech sectors have speculated the company will go public on May 18, given that Facebook will reportedly on Monday begin its investor roadshow, or national tour of the company to drum up interest among investors, as if Facebook needed any more of that.
