Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is raking in the billions as he rang the NASDAQ bell this morning, officially opening trading for stock in Facebook.
STORY: Life Saver! Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook Makes Major Announcement
Today marks the day of Facebook’s long-awaited initial public offering and the 28-year-old is expected to take in $20 billion.
The Zuck rang the bell from Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. Surrounded by cheering Facebook employees and wearing his signature hoodie, Zuckerberg hit the button that signals the opening of the stock market in New York.
The night before, Zuckerberg and his pals staged an all-night “hackathon” at the company, where engineers stayed up coding software and conjuring up new ideas for Facebook and its 900 million users.
On Thursday, Facebook and the investment bankers who arranged the IPO settled on a price of $38 per share. The company and its early investors raised $16 billion in the offering, which valued Facebook at $104 billion, making it the most valuable U.S. company to ever go public.
Even though Zuckerberg rang the Nasdaq opening bell from California, people outside the stock market in Times Square snapped photos of a big blue Facebook sign that lit up the building.
Frederick Nolde, who was visiting from Richmond, Va., said he bought 100 shares through the online brokerage eTrade:
“I think Google is a good comparison and it’s worth $200 to 300 billion. The real question is how they do in mobile. If they can figure that out they’ll do well.”
Either way, the money will be rolling in for the Zuck and his crew!
