18 May 2012: Facebook's bumpy IPO
Facebook went public on May 18, 2012 at $38 a share, raising about $16 billion in one of the largest IPOs in history. Technical glitches at Nasdaq delayed trading, and underwriters had to support the stock to keep it from falling below the offer price on day one. Within months it had fallen to around half. Those who held on through the doubts later made many times their money.
The lesson: A disappointing debut says little about long-term value; the business decides that eventually.
What it meant for investors
$1,000 in Facebook / Meta at the start of 2015 → $8,974 today, vs $3,301 in the S&P 500.
We start the clock at the start of 2015, the first year in our price data after the event. That is 9.0 times the money, and $5,673 more than a plain index fund made over the same years.
What Facebook / Meta teaches: Founder control cuts both ways: Zuckerberg's unchecked authority produced brilliant acquisitions and an expensive metaverse detour, and shareholders could vote on neither.
| Bought in | Price then | Worth today | S&P 500 would be |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | $78.00 | $8,974 | $3,301 |
| 2018 | $180 | $3,889 | $2,519 |
| 2020 | $210 | $3,333 | $2,092 |
green = beat the S&P 500 · red = lost money
What if you bought Facebook / Meta? Every starting year and the full story →
More Facebook / Meta history
- 3 February 2022: Meta loses a record chunk of value in a day
- 9 April 2012: Facebook buys Instagram for $1 billion
- 10 April 2018: Zuckerberg testifies and Facebook stock rises
- 26 July 2018: Facebook loses about $119 billion in a day
- 4 October 2021: Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp go dark for hours
Could you have called it at the time? The wheel picks the year, you pick the position, ten seconds a pick.
Play Sixty-40