Facebook’s initial public offering priced its shares at $38 each in May 2012.
The offering valued Facebook at roughly $104 billion, making it one of the largest technology IPOs at that time. Trading began on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol FB on May 18, 2012.
The share price was set after strong investor demand, although the first trading day was affected by technical problems and underwriters supporting the price. Facebook later changed its corporate name to Meta Platforms, and its ticker became META in 2022.
The $38 figure is the IPO offer price, not the closing price on the first day or the company’s later share price. Those figures are often confused when discussing Facebook’s public-market debut.