Published Friday, 18 May 2012
Facebook will have a valuation exceeding $100bn. (© Getty)
The social media company, worth some $100bn, is offering shares to the public for US$38 in one of the biggest and the most high-profile US stock flotations in recent years.
Music magazine NME says Bono is set to make a handsome return on the 2.3% share he bought through his private equity firm, Elevation Partners, for $90m in 2009.
The Irish singer's investment is now worth US$1.5bn - which would see his fortune soar past that of Beatle Paul McCartney, who was the richest rockstar on the planet with £665m.
Founded in a Harvard dorm room eight years ago, Facebook has launched its initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq Stock Market in New York - and it stands to reap up to $18.4bn from the sale of hundreds of millions of shares.
Trading began under the ticker symbol FB on Friday, two days after massive interest in the sale prompted the website to boost the number of shares it plans to sell, with 84 million more - worth up to $3.2bn - being added to the IPO.
Facebook board members Peter Thiel and James Breyer are among those selling more shares, however founder Mark Zuckerberg did not increase the number he is selling.
He pocketed more than US$1bn after Facebook shares rose 5% early in their first day of trading.
He remotely opened the Nasdaq Composite Index from the social media giant's California headquarters to mark the occasion.