Facebook is now worth as much as $33.7bn based on secondary market transactions, giving the privately held company an implied valuation greater than the market capitalisations of publicly traded internet stalwarts such as Ebay and Yahoo.
Common stock in Facebook is trading as high as $76 a share as investors scramble to get a piece of the company before it files for an initial public offering, which analysts say could be the biggest technology IPO since Google’s $1.67bn flotation in 2004.
The ballooning valuation of Facebook compared with listed groups such as Ebay and Yahoo, which have market caps of $30.1bn and $18.3bn respectively, signals a new dynamic between technology companies and investors.