Facebook Said to Raise Size of IPO to 421 Million Shares

Facebook Inc. (FB) is boosting the number of shares for sale in its initial public offering to 421.2 million, allowing the world’s most popular social network to raise as much as $16 billion. Existing holders will offer 241.2 million shares, compared with the 157.4 million they originally planned to sell, according to a regulatory filing today. Menlo Park, California- based Facebook and its existing holders had earlier planned to offer 337.4 million shares. Facebook, gearing up for the largest-ever IPO of a technology company, had already increased the offering’s price range to $34 to $38 apiece, from $28 to $35 previously. Investors are betting that Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg can overcome slowing sales growth by expanding into areas such as mobile advertising and e-commerce, said Samuel Schwerin, managing partner at New York-based Millennium Technology Value Partners. “An increasing number of institutional investors are looking beyond the value of the business today and looking at the future growth,” Schwerin, whose firm oversees $1 billion, including Facebook stock, said yesterday. “Those drivers are extraordinary in size, including international and mobile and commerce.” At $16 billion, Facebook’s debut would surpass that of General Motors Co. to be the second-largest in U.S. history, excluding so-called over-allotments, which let underwriters buy more shares at a later date, data compiled by Bloomberg show.