In the 24 hours or so since Facebook filed its long-awaited S-1 and started on the way to a second-quarter public offering, some of the focus has been on the near-certainty that the bulk of the social network’s shares being sold will be snatched up by big institutions and high net-worth individuals. There are some signals though, that retail investors will not be shut out of the offering entirely.
TD Ameritrade now believes its clients will be able to participate in the Facebook IPO, according to a spokesperson, though it warns that the extent of that participation has yet to be determined. Clarity on that front may not come anytime soon either, given that Facebook is only one day into an IPO process that took fellow social media firms LinkedIn, Groupon and Zynga between three and six months.
An E-Trade Financial spokesman could not yet say if the firm expects to offer Facebook IPO shares to clients, while a Charles Schwab representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Full story: Retail Investors May Get A Small Slice Of Facebook’s IPO Pie