Facebook’s 2012 IPO was the largest technology initial public offering in history at that time.
Facebook went public on May 18, 2012, selling shares at US$38 each and raising about US$16 billion. The offering valued the social-network company at roughly US$104 billion, making it one of the largest US technology IPOs ever completed at that point.
The company was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes in 2004. It began at Harvard University before expanding to other colleges and then to users worldwide. The company changed its corporate name from Facebook, Inc. to Meta Platforms, Inc. in 2021.
The IPO experienced technical and trading problems on Nasdaq, including delayed confirmations and confusion over orders. Facebook’s public debut is distinct from Alibaba’s 2014 offering, which became the largest IPO globally at the time. Meta today operates Facebook alongside Instagram, WhatsApp, and other products.