This Day In Market History: Facebook Goes Public

Each day, Benzinga takes a look back at a notable market-related moment that occurred on this date.

What Happened? On May 18, 2012, Facebook, Inc. FB held its highly anticipated IPO.

Where The Market Was: The Dow finished the day at 12,369.38. The S&P 500 traded at 1,295.22.

What Else Was Going On? In 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit the U.S. East Coast, killing nearly 300 people and causing more than $50 billion in damage. Marvel’s “The Avengers” became one of the highest-grossing movies of all time. A dozen eggs cost $1.54.

Stumbling Out Of The Gate: There was a tremendous buzz on Wall Street surrounding the Facebook IPO, but Facebook’s life on the public market didn’t get off to the kind of start investors had hoped for.

Facebook raised more than $16 billion from its IPO, which made it the largest technology IPO ever at the time. Facebook IPO shares were priced at $38.

When the stock began trading on May 18, it initially spiked as high as $45 before drifting lower throughout the day and finally closing at $38.23, just cents above its IPO price. From there, things only got worse for Facebook, which ultimately bottomed at $17.55 in late 2012.

All’s well that ends well for Facebook shareholders, however. Today the stock of the company now known as Meta Platforms trades at a price above $202 per share with a market cap of around $550 billion.