Nasdaq reels in a trophy listing: Facebook

NEW YORK, April 7 (UPI) -- Signing up Facebook for its initial public offering is a huge win for the Nasdaq stock exchange, perhaps even a game-changer, market analysts said.

"This is a strong, substantial win for Nasdaq," said Richard Repetto of Sandler O'Neill & Partners, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

Nasdaq, which competed with the New York Stock Exchange Euronext for the listing, is "no doubt a momentum builder for future listings," Repetto said.

Facebook is expected to raise about $10 billion in its IPO, which is likely to occur in May.

That would make it one of largest IPOs ever, topped by only a few.

Among U.S. companies, only Visa Inc., General Motors Co., and AT&T Wireless have raised $10 billion or more with their IPOs. Google, a Facebook rival that is also listed on the Nasdaq exchange, raised $1.9 billion with its 2004 public debut. That gave Google a valuation of $23 billion.

Facebook's IPO will put to rest a subject of fierce guesswork on Wall Street: The firm's value, which is current estimated to be around $100 billion.

That represents a substantial coup for Nasdaq, which has seriously courted California starts ups for two decades.

"The Facebook listing I've seen as being similar to the Google listing, which had a similar competition between the exchanges, and a similar win for Nasdaq, and a tremendously successful IPO for both," said Jay Frankl, senior managing director at FTI Consulting.