Earlier quoted context omitted.
This was the second largest "money left on the table" from an IPO. Jay Ritter's document shows how much AirBNB could have picked up if they had priced their IPO appropriately. https://site.warrington.ufl.edu/ritter/files/Monnew.pdf
Can someone please explain the winners and losers of this $3.9 Billion discrepancy?
Let's say a company IPOs by selling 1,000 shares at $1/share. An investor buys them all. Opening bell rings and demand let's that investor sell shares at $2/share.
So the company sold 1,000 shares for half of what people were willing to pay. The investor bought shares at half the price they could sell them for.