Into the gloom of the current markets comes a small sparkle of excitement: the Visa IPO. Marketwatch reports that the offering will be a blockbuster, and that its March 20 offering date is already oversubscribed.Visa, Inc., based in San Francisco, plans to offer over 400 million shares for between $37-$42. Based on the midpoint of that range, the company would raise over $15 billion.
This would be more than the market value of Visa's largest rival, Mastercard(NYSE:MA), IPO two years ago, which was $10 billion. Mastercards' shares subsequently soared 408%, according to Dealbook.
Visa currently leads marketshare with 60% of the worldwide credit market compared to Mastercard's 26% share.
Hard economic times can be great for credit card companies, since they don't own the debt. They grab a transaction fee from every purchase, and those swipes tend to happen more frequently when people are feeling cash poor.
Visa is the biggest retail electronic payments network (the cards are accepted in over 170 countries), and its brand is one of the world's most recognized. Now, investors will get a chance to buy shares in the company.
and 
.
The IPO of 
Will Rich Ross really have a positive impact on Disney's movie operations?
Consumers sick of recession, may spend extra on holidays
Corrections, seasonality and Santa Claus
