Facebook finally goes public today in the biggest IPO in Silicon Valley history. The market valuation will surpass $100 billion; that's more than well-established companies like Disney and Kraft.
California Gov. Jerry Brown recently informed Californians that the state was $16 billion in the hole, instead of the mere $9 billion everyone expected. The Facebook IPO will generate a lot of taxable income for a few thousand Californians.
As Facebook plans to go public next week, this week individual investors are buying E*Trade accounts because of the rumors they may be able to get in early on the public shares of Facebook stock. How easy is that?
In letting go of his U.S. citizenship now, Eduardo Saverin will also be able to avoid paying nearly $600 million in U.S. capital gains taxes when Facebook goes public.
Facebook has set its valuation at $76 billion to $96 billion, and shares will be at $28 to $35 each. What does this tell us about the company and about CEO Mark Zuckerberg?