Airbnb Prices I.P.O. at $68 a Share

Airbnb priced its initial public offering on Wednesday at $68 a share, selling 51.5 million shares for $3.5 billion and valuing the home rental company at $47 billion. It is the largest I.P.O. of the year.

It was a far higher price than the company had originally set, indicating investor demand for the stock. Airbnb had initially put its price range at $44 to $50 a share, and on Monday it had raised that to $56 to $60 each.

The move came as DoorDash, another venture capital-backed start-up, surged 86 percent on its first day of trading on Wednesday. The delivery company had priced its offering at $102 a share and raised $3.4 billion.

Public market investors have been eager to back tech companies, particularly those that have thrived in the pandemic. More than 200 companies valued at more than $50 million have gone public so far this year, according to Renaissance Capital, which tracks I.P.O.s., marking the busiest year since 1999.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/09/business/airbnb-ipo-price.html