Goldman doubles Facebook share sales

Early Facebook investors, including Goldman Sachs, plan to unload more shares in the upcoming IPO—adding 84 million shares, worth up to $3.2 billion, to take advantage of increasing investor demand.

The entire increase comes from insiders and early investors, so the company won’t benefit from the additional sales.

The biggest increases come from investment firms DST Global and Tiger Global. Goldman Sachs is doubling the number of shares it’s selling, and Facebook board members Peter Thiel and James Breyer are also selling more shares.

Founder Mark Zuckerberg, however, isn’t planning to increase his contribution.

Facebook has already raised the expected price range for the stock to a range of $34 to $38 per share, up from its previous range of $28 to $35. At the high end of the possible price range, the IPO would raise $16 billion and would be the third-largest U.S. IPO in history.

The IPO is hotly anticipated and may value Facebook at more than $100 billion, with current shareholders now offering approximately 241 million shares, up from about 157 million shares previously.

The offering is expected to get a final price Thursday evening. Shares would start trading on the Nasdaq on Friday under the ticker symbol FB.

The additional sales will trim Zuckerburg’s voting control to 55.8%, down from 57.3 per cent; he currently has voting control over shares owned by some investment firms, which will be sold in the offering.

The site has more than 900 million users but makes only a few dollars per year per user. Advertisers, including General Motors, have been complaining it’s difficult to make good use of the platform.

GM did not say why it would stop advertising, however. GM spokesman Greg Martin says the company would keep paid content on pages that promote its products, and reaffirmed the company’s commitment and strong relationship with Facebook.

Morgan Stanley leads the team of 33 underwriters selected for the Facebook offering, followed by JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, which was recently fined $22 million for failed supervision, along with having one its investment bankers suspected of insider trading.