$10 billion raised in record IPO

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Thursday, April 27, 2000 | 11:35 a.m.

NEW YORK -- AT&T's new wireless stock didn't fly to the sky like an IPO in the good old days, just months ago, but at least Ma Bell found enough buyers to sell a mammoth $10 billion worth of stock in its latest offspring.

Shares of the new AT&T Wireless Group, created through the biggest initial public offering in U.S. history, debuted on the open market today, bobbing higher from the IPO price of $29.50 set Wednesday evening.

In early trading on the New York Stock Exchange, where AT&T executives rang the opening bell, the stock rose as high as $31.88 before pulling back to $31.19.

Despite concerns that Wall Street's foul mood might derail the IPO, AT&T announced late Wednesday it was selling 360 million shares for a total of $10.26 billion.

Although the IPO failed to come in at the high end of the $26 to $32 range proposed by AT&T, and while the company had been prepared to sell up to 54 million additional shares, analysts said it was encouraging, in this environment, that the stock didn't sell at the lower end of the price range.