PluggedIn

Facebook officially launches its long-awaited IPO on Friday morning with shares in the company to be sold for $38 each, that’s about £24 per piece of social networking royalty, in proper money.

The offering on the Nasdaq index in the United States will raise $16 billion in cash right out of the gate for Facebook and will value the company at an incredible $104 billion.

The floatation will make Facebook founder and CEO an instant billionaire, with his 30 million shares up for grabs expected to bring in $1.1 billion.

Facebook’s launch is by far the biggest IPO of any internet based company ever. Even the mighty Google only (yeah, we mean only in the relative sense) fetched in $1.67bn for the search giant.

More aggressive advertising

The involvement of heavy-hitting shareholders, who Zuckerberg and his army of twentisomething creatives now have to answer to, could change the face of the social network, as they seek a return on their investments.

Adverts will definitely invade the mobile space, while there are fears that the personal data of the company’s 900 million active users will be further exploited through targeting campaigns.

For the record, today’s offering will make Facebook about £3 per user and there’s plenty more where that came from!

Thinking about buying some Facebook shares? Worth it? Have a spare gazillion dollars in the bank? Have your say below in the comments section!