Facebook Sets IPO Price Range of $28-$35 Per Share

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Facebook, which is gearing up for the biggest ever tech IPO, could raise as much as $13.6 billion from its offering, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.

The social networking giant amended its S-1 filing, detailing an anticipated price range of $28 to $35 per share.

Facebook amended its S-1 filing with the SEC on Thursday.

Facebook estimates that the net proceeds from the sale of its common stock will be approximately $5.67 billion, assuming an IPO price of $31.50 per share, which is the midpoint of its price range, and the sale of roughly 180 million shares.

The Menlo Park, Calif.-based firm did not reveal the date of its offering in the amended S-1, although the IPO is expected to take place in mid-May.

The $13.6 billion in potential proceeds represents the maximum proposed size of the offering, which would reflect the sale of 388 million shares at $35 each.

Facebook will have 2.14 billion total Class A and Class B shares outstanding after the IPO, according to the document. At $35 a share this would give Facebook a total valuation of $74.83 billion, below the $100 billion mark rumored in recent weeks.

By way of comparison, HP (HPQ) has a market cap of $48.41 billion, while Google (GOOG) and IBM (IBM) and have market caps of $199.2 billion and $239.05 billion, respectively. Apple's (AAPL) market cap is $544.04 billion.

Previously, the largest tech IPO was Google's $1.7 billion offering in 2004.

--Written by James Rogers in New York.

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