Facebook raises IPO stock price range

Facebook's IPO, already expected to be the largest initial public offering for an Internet company, is getting even bigger.

The world's largest online social network Tuesday increased the planned price range for its stock to $34 to $38 per share in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That's up from its previous range of $28 to $35. At the upper limit of $38, the sale would raise about $12.8 billion.

The move, which values Facebook as high as $104 billion, comes amid growing investor excitement about the offering. Analysts are comparing the frenzy surrounding Facebook's IPO to Google Inc.'s in 2004.

But Facebook's IPO, reportedly scheduled for Friday, is expected to raise more than 10 times as much as the $1.67 billion raised in Google eight years ago.

Half of Americans think the expected value for Facebook Inc. is too high, according to a new Associated Press-CNBC poll conducted before the company raised its expected stock price.

As it stands, Facebook would be the fourth-largest U.S. IPO in history, edging out AT&T Wireless, whose 2000 IPO raised $10.6 billion, according to Renaissance Capital, an IPO investment advisory firm.