Historic Facebook debut falls short of expectations
Anita Shegal
May 19, 2012

The historic initial public offer (IPO) of Facebook Inc did not go as planned yesterday, as the social networking company’s sky-high valuation, combined with trading glitches, left the stock languishing near its offering price at the market close.

Facebook shares, which opened up 11 per cent, closed at $38.23 after a nail-biting last half hour of trading when the shares dipped to their $38 IPO price. Most investors had predicted a first-day pop.

More than 576 million shares changed hands, setting a trading volume record for US market debuts. The company had priced its IPO at the top end of its target range and increased the size of the offering, becoming the first US company to go public with a valuation greater than $100 billion. Founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, 28, who retains voting control of the company and whose personal net worth is now about $20 billion, marked the debut of his company’s shares at the company’s Silicon Valley campus, symbolically ringing the opening bell for stock trading yesterday morning.

Wearing his trademark black hoodie, Zuckerberg hugged and high-fived Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, who is credited with bringing crucial business discipline to a company founded in a Harvard dorm room eight years ago.

Historic Facebook debut falls short of expectations
Anita Shegal
The historic initial public offer (IPO) of Facebook Inc did not go as planned yesterday, as the social networking company’s sky-high valuation, combined with trading glitches, left the stock languishing near its offering price at the market close.
READ MORE>>

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