Facebook’s stock-market debut in 2012 was the largest initial public offering in the technology sector at that time.
Facebook went public on May 18, 2012, on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol FB. The company priced its initial public offering at $38 per share and raised about $16 billion, giving it a valuation of roughly $104 billion at the offering price.
The debut attracted intense attention because Facebook had grown from a college social-networking project into a global advertising platform. Technical and trading problems affected the first day, but the IPO still marked one of the largest technology listings then recorded.
Facebook changed its corporate name to Meta Platforms in 2021 as it emphasized virtual and augmented reality alongside social-media products. The 2012 IPO therefore belongs to Facebook, even though the publicly traded company is now called Meta Platforms.