Facebook gets a thumbs-sideways in debut

While months of anticipation and hype may have helped drive Facebook's valuation over $100 billion, public investors were not so carried away. After opening at $42.05, 11% above its $38 offer price, the stock spent most of the afternoon gradually retreating, ending at $38.23, up just 0.6%. The modest start may have been unexpected, but large technology IPOs actually have a history of unexciting debuts. Of the thirteen tech companies to raise more than $1 billion since 2000, only six have gained more than one percent on their first days. More worrisome is the fact that only two are currently trading above their offer prices (excluding Freescale Semiconductor, which was taken private).

By pricing at the high end of its range, Facebook raised more than $16 billion, becoming the third largest US IPO ever, and its $104 billion valuation made it the 23rd largest company in the US by market cap. Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs were the lead underwriters on the deal.

Billion dollar technology IPOs since 2000 (by offer date)

Company	Offer Date	Offer Price	First Day Return	Total Proceeds (in mm)
Facebook	5/17/2012	$38.00	0.6%	$16,007
Zynga	12/15/2011	$10.00	-5.0%	$1,000
Yandex N.V.	5/23/2011	$25.00	55.4%	$1,304
Shanda Games Limited	9/24/2009	$12.50	-14.0%	$1,044
Google	8/18/2004	$85.00	18.0%	$1,666
Freescale Semiconductor	7/15/2004	$13.00	7.8%	$1,581
LG. Philips LCD	7/15/2004	$15.00	-6.3%	$1,008
Semiconductor Manufacturing	3/11/2004	$17.50	-11.3%	$1,803
Agere Systems	3/27/2001	$6.00	0.3%	$3,600
Alcatel Optronics	10/19/2000	$71.95	-0.8%	$1,187
Corvis	7/27/2000	$36.00	135.3%	$1,138
TyCom	7/26/2000	$32.00	14.1%	$1,952
Infineon	3/12/2000	$33.92	106.4%	$5,231