RJS, it's my experience that the company sets what

RJS, it's my experience that the company sets what it thinks it can generate from the IPO (based upon some criteria, consultants, underwriters etc), and then they do a dog and pony show to see if the demand is there at that price. They adjust up or down based on that reaction, setting the price a couple of days prior to the actual offering. I think the most successful IPOs are those where they set the price just slightly under where they establish demand, because then there is excess demand when trading starts. I don't believe the MMs have any say until after the stock starts trading.

So if Joe stated $300 million, I suspect he has some criteria that pegged it at that number. It will go up or down from there based on demand as the company/concept/shares are shopped. It will move more once the trading starts as the MMs take it over.

I thought that was a good number to start a guessing game re: the pps, if we had an estimation of shares. Yes, probably a fool's errand, but I've been a fool for a long time so I'm good at those errands.