Facebook Value Tops $100B Ahead of IPO

(The New York Post) - A pre-Initial Public Offering (IPO) rally in Facebook shares has pushed the value of the social-networking giant past $100 billion.

Some 150,000 Facebook shares sold for $44 apiece in the latest auction on SharesPost, a trading platform for stock in private companies. That's a 10 percent jump from just last week, when 100,000 shares went for $40 each.

At $44 a share, Facebook would be worth about $103.5 billion.

Before the company filed to go public last week, its shares were selling in the low-$30s for much of last year on private exchanges like SharesPost and SecondMarket.

Underwriters, led by Morgan Stanley, will be hard-pressed to set the share price below where the company has traded privately, increasing the likelihood the company will attain a $100 billion valuation when shares are allocated for the IPO, according to some analysts.

Read more: The New York Post