Facebook Is Raising $15 Billion

The first reports about Facebook's upcoming IPO said the company would raise a limited amount of capital – maybe $5 billion – in order to insure demand for its stock remained high. 

As the weeks went on that number crept higher, toward $10 billion and beyond. Well, after a road show last week, demand is very high, and now Facebook has decided to go ahead and raise $14.7 billion. Instead of floating 337.5 million shares, it will sell 380 million at a price range between $34 and $38 per share. 

About $7 billion of that $14.7 billion will go to Facebook itself. $7 billion billion is an incredible cash infusion for a company the size of Facebook, which for all its fame and wealth still only has 3,000 employees – thousands fewer than Yahoo and tens of thousand fewer than Google, Microsoft, or Apple.