Facebook Raises IPO Size Amid Insatiable Demand

MENLO PARK, Calif. (TheStreet) -- Facebook (FB), which is just days away from the biggest-ever tech IPO, raised its price range, highlighting the intense investor interest in the world's biggest social media company.

The company, founded and run by Mark Zuckerberg, increased its projected price range to between $34 and $38 a share, according to an amended S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday. Facebook had initially predicted a range of $28 to $35 a share.

Facebook has been approved to trade under the ticker symbol 'FB'

The Menlo Park, Calif.-based firm is expected to price its IPO on Thursday and commence trading on Friday. The change in price range came as underwriters shopped around the initial share sale to investors. Their bullishness suggests there will be strong demand for the stock once it starts trading on an exchange.

Facebook could raise as much as $14.75 billion from its offering. That sum reflects the maximum proposed size of the offering: 388 million shares at $38 each.

Excluding an over-allotment of 50.6 million shares, however, and assuming an IPO price of $36 a share, the midpoint of its range, Facebook would raise $12.1 billion. The company estimates that the net proceeds from its offering will be about $6.4 billion, assuming a midpoint price range.

On Monday, in a separate filing, the SEC noted that Facebook's stock has been approved for listing on the Nasdaq under the "FB" symbol. Facebook outlined its plan to trade on the Nasdaq in an amended S-1 filing last month, ending speculation about the company's likely home.

Facebook's offering will easily surpass Google's (GOOG) 2004 $1.7 billion IPO, up to this point the largest IPO from an American technology company. German semiconductor specialist Infineon Technologies raised $5.2 billion in its 2000 IPO. The chipmaker opted to delist from the New York Stock Exchange in 2009.

--Written by James Rogers in New York.

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