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Airbnb, the longtime travel unicorn almost left for dead when its homesharing business nosedived in March, executed an initial public offering on Thursday of near-mythical proportions.
Priced at $68 per share Wednesday evening, the first trade was $146 per share. The company, which had an $18 billion private valuation during the depths of the recession, was trading at more than $158 per share in the first few minutes of trading, translating to a $109 billion valuation. That makes it larger than Booking Holdings’ at $86 billion market cap and dwarfing rival Expedia’s at $18.5 billion.