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.
