When Did Facebook (Meta) Go Public?

Meta (previously Facebook) has grown to be the world's most popular social networking platform, with over 2.70 billion monthly active users.

The firm was created in 2004 and went public via initial public offering (IPO) on May 18, 2012, at a price of $38 per share. Early on, the price fell below $18 a share before climbing to where it is today, with a market capitalization of more than half a trillion dollars.

It was the largest technology IPO in American history to that date, and the third-largest IPO ever in the United States, after those of Visa and General Motors. At the time it went public, Facebook was valued at $104 billion and had some 900 million registered users worldwide.

At the time of the company's much-anticipated IPO on May 18, 2012, Zuckerberg was worth some $19 billion. However, despite all the fanfare surrounding Facebook's IPO, its shares closed the first day of trading at $38.23, only slightly above the $38 IPO price, which many investors considered a disappointing performance.

Why did Facebook go public?

Same reason any company goes public, but given Facebook's massive valuation and huge number of outstanding shares and number of shareholders, these reasons were even more important:

Influx of cash: by selling shares to the public, the company gains a lot of cash that they can use for hiring and buying stuff.

Liquidity for shareholders: although many shareholders could, and were, selling shares through secondary share marketplaces like Second Market and Sharespost, selling shares on public markets has lower minimums per transaction, requires less administrative headaches and takes much less time.

Public company stock is more attractive in M&A transactions (buying a company with stock) and in hiring (options packages) because of its liquidity.

The Bottom Line

Though the tech giant's IPO got off to a rocky start, the company turned the tide and has seen significant growth in the years since. With strategic acquisitions, such as Instagram and WhatsApp, Meta will continue to be a dominant player in the tech and social media industries, with a stock price that is expected to continue growing.