Visa Inc. held its initial public offering in 2008, then the largest U.S. IPO at the time.
Visa began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on March 19, 2008, under the symbol V. The offering raised approximately US$17.9 billion, and the company sold 446.6 million shares at US$44 each. The IPO followed Visa’s restructuring from an association of member financial institutions into a publicly traded corporation.
Visa operates a global payments network rather than primarily lending money to cardholders. Its network connects consumers, merchants, financial institutions, and governments, while banks generally issue Visa-branded cards. This business model is different from that of a bank, even though Visa is closely connected to the banking and payments industries.
Visa’s scale and transaction-based revenue helped it become one of the world’s most valuable publicly traded financial companies. Its 2008 offering is sometimes confused with later large listings, such as General Motors’ 2010 IPO, which surpassed Visa’s proceeds.