MasterCard Debuts on Wall Street, Rises Over 15 Percent

MasterCard

Debuts on Wall Street, Rises Over 15 Percent

MasterCard Corp. made its debut today on the New York stock

exchange, and, with an hour of trading left in its first session,

MasterCard's price had jumped over 15 percent from the initial

public offering price of $39. The offering may raise as much

as $2.5 billion.

MasterCard's

initial offering was slated to be priced in a range of $40 to

$43, but was priced at $39 due to market conditions and possibly

legal issues as well. MasterCard and Visa are both being sued

by retailers over the interchange fees that retailers pay to

be able to accept these cards. A loss in that litigation could

prove to be very costly for MasterCard, and harmful to its stock

price.

But

for today, the strength of the MasterCard brand seemed to outweigh

those concerns.

Published 05/25/06 (Modified 05/07/12)