Visa Heads for Biggest IPO in US in Years

Visa is moving ahead on a massive initial public stock offering expected early next year. Papers filed yesterday show that shares could be valued at $10 billion, which would make it the second-largest public offering in US history, the Wall Street Journal reports. The biggest is the $10.62 billion IPO by AT&T Wireless in 2000.

Since announcing plans to go public last year, Visa has focused on uniting its regional divisions. The electronic-payments industry is booming on new products such as mobile payments through cellphones and checkout counters that read fingerprints. Visa is the largest player in the industry, followed by MasterCard, which has seen its stock more than double since October 2006. (More Visa stories.)