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Facebook IPO Hits Markets Today: Will It Spur SoCal IPO Activity?

As Mountain View-based social networking site Facebook hits the market today, in what is the largest tech initial public offering in history, one question is if it will spur what has, so far, been a lackluster IPO market for Southern California technology firms. Despite the huge interest in Facebook's IPO--the firm priced at $38.00 last night, at the very high range of an already raised $34.00 to $38.00 initial offering range--it has actually been a less active year for Southern California than 2010, when a slew of Southern California tech firms hit the market. About the only, Internet-based Southern California firm to be on tap for an IPO is LegalZoom, which filed for a very modest $120M IPO earlier this month. In comparison, Facebook's IPO today will raise $18.4 billion for that company, as it sells 421,2333,615 shares of its common stock to the public. There have been a few companies rumored to be working on IPOs in Southern California: SpaceX and Hulu have been mentioned as candidates: but it's unclear if the huge reception for Facebook may spur those firms or others to actually file for an IPO.