Facebook completed the largest technology IPO of 2012, raising about $16 billion.
Facebook went public on May 18, 2012, in an offering that raised approximately $16 billion and valued the company at roughly $104 billion. The flotation made it one of the largest U.S. technology IPOs ever at that time.
The company was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. It began at Harvard and expanded rapidly to other universities before becoming a worldwide social-networking service.
Facebook’s first trading day was affected by technical problems and heavy demand, and its share price later fell substantially before recovering. In 2021, the parent company changed its name to Meta Platforms, reflecting a strategy that included virtual and augmented reality as well as social networking.