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.

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