Facebook sets IPO share price at $38

Facebook has set its share price for today's long-anticipated initial public offering at $38 dollars (£24).   

On Tuesday, the company had raised the price range of its shares from $29-to-$34 per share to $34-to-$38 per share. The official opening pricing, which was nailed down after the close of financial markets, is at the highest end of that range, according to an early report from MarketWatch.

The social networking company is offering up about 421 million shares to potential investors. That means the company could raise upwards of $18.5 billion in its IPO.

Since Facebook is easily the largest and most well-known of any social network in the world, Friday's IPO is expected to serve as a harbinger for the business viability and valuation of other companies in the social networking world.