Facebook valued between 85bn to 95bn USD

Published:  4 May at 6 PM

As reported by the BBC, Facebook has fixed its share price for the approaching initial public offering (IPO), setting the price at between $28 - $35 per stake and valuing the firm at around $85 billion - $95 billion (or £52 billion - £59 billion).

The IPO is expected to be the biggest ever for a web firm, larger than Google's appreciation of $23 billion in 2004. Initial public offerings are when firms announce share prices on the stock market in the earliest stages.

Facebook is expected to appear on the Nasdaq and rival Cisco System's and Amazon's present market values. Analysts believe that Facebook will begin promoting the take offering on Monday, and shares are due to begin trading with the "FB" symbol on May 18.

Over 10 percent of the company is being sold, which will likely raise around $12 billion for the social network. The eight-year-old company has 900 million users around the world and churned a profit of $1 billion last year.

Analysts expect to see large take-ups, although some investors have expressed concerns over the firm’ longer-term growth. About a week ago, Facebook reported its first fall in profits between quarters for 24 months.