Facebook's first year as a public company: By the numbers

A look at how the social giant has fared on Wall Street

Facebook's IPO
(Image credit: AP Photo/Nasdaq via Facebook, Zef Nikolla)

On May 18, 2012, Mark Zuckerberg, wearing one of his signature black hoodies, rang the opening bell on the Nasdaq stock market, kicking off trading for Facebook — one of the most highly anticipated IPOs in history.

Immediately, the market went bonkers: Nasdaq's systems couldn’t handle the tsunami of trading volume, and broke down. As Facebook lawyers later suggested in a legal filing, the nail-biting half-hour spooked investors and drove down share prices. After years of buildup, shares of Facebook closed almost flat on the first day of trading.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us

Carmel Lobello is the business editor at TheWeek.com. Previously, she was an editor at DeathandTaxesMag.com.