Facebook IPO: Stock Falters, Still Raises $16 Billion

Call it the most disappointing $16 billion raised in investment history.

Facebook stock is off to a rocky start after its highly anticipated initial public offering (IPO), jumping more than 10 percent in the first few minutes of trading before sellers swept into the market and that gain evaporated.

“The stock is trading right at the IPO price,” one expert told the L.A. Times. “They didn’t want that in a million years. A traditional IPO is up 10% or 15%.”

The stock most recently hovered at about $40, only $2 above what shares were priced at late Thursday. Shares touched $38 multiple times during trading.

Investors also had to deal with a nearly three-hour delay for the stock to open. The Nasdaq kept the stock halted as it processed a crush of buy and sell orders.

The inauspicious opening after the Facebook IPO suggests that retail investors paid close attention to reports of soft financials and big selling by insiders.

Still, Facebook raised $16 billion in what will go down as the third-largest public offering in U.S. history and the biggest ever for a technology company.

Could be worse, right? Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg rang the Nasdaq opening bell from company headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.

Eduardo Saverin, one of the company's co-founders, made news this week by giving up U.S. citizenship as a means of limiting his tax liability.

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