[View the story "All eyes on Facebook" on Storify ]All eyes on Facebook As the company's stock goes public, netizens question its value. Storified by The Stream · Fri, May 18 2012 12:54:45
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg rang in the opening day of his company's public trading on the stock market earlier today from the US state of California, dressed in his traditional hooded sweatshirt.
Facebook Rings Nasdaq Opening Bell May 18th 2012investary
He added the company's NASDAQ listing to his Facebook status shortly afterward.
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Online spectators watched as the company debuted as the third-largest IPO in history.
Is #Facebook really worth $104 Billion? I'm going to wager a hefty no...but then again it's about what "they" think...right? #MarketMadnessUdit Thakur
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Speculation online about the social media giant's worth reached a crescendo. Twitter user @jamespound created a
website where users could play the pundit and predict the price of Facebook's stock.
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Facebook ultimately priced its offering at $38 a share late on May 17, 2012.
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The company reached a value of over $100 billion, making it the largest IPO ever for an Internet stock. Certificate image from
SEC .
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I need to get me some of this Facebook stock after the IPO release tomorrow regardless of how much It starts at. Its gone go up ⬆Khris D
Reactions to the IPO were mixed, with many critical of what they saw as preventing consumers without business connections from purchasing shares.
All our likes, pokes, shares, status updates, albums and every minute that we spent on @Facebook are making people rich today #FacebookIPOFirdaus Haque
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One
site widely shared on Facebook estimated how much users' personal data had benefited the company.
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Others were more critical of the idea that Facebook, a social network sometimes seen as primarily a "time-waster," could be worth such an amount of money.
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Official #Facebook IPO slogan: "You've already wasted your time on Facebook. Now waste your money."Andy Borowitz
I keep hearing re: Facebook IPO: "they don't make anything" Yeah they do, they make a sophisticated web platform that a billion people use.Dr. Mark Drapeau
For Facebook's part, employees celebrated the IPO with an all-night 'hack-a-thon,' a 24-hour session of coding that has been a longtime part of the company, sparking the original ideas for the "Like" button as well as Facebook chat. Photo from
Techcrunch .
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i love that Facebook is doing an all night hackathon before the IPO. that's one way to keep the team focused on the product!Sarah Lacy
Many online reminisced about the earlier days of Facebook, posting screenshots of older versions of the site.
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Some netizens, however, expressed concern that the massive value of Facebook's stock was an economic "bubble" of overinflated value that would crash, as did many Internet stocks in 2000.
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Not surprising social media stocks are selling off today. Most have spiked ahead of the Facebook IPO. Groupon is up 25% in last 5 days aloneJohn Shmuel
The problems people have grasping the IPO process on $FB is too reminiscent of 1999. Not a good omen...Jim Cramer
When $2B vanishes on Wall St it's a "trading loss." When $100B vanishes it's a "Facebook IPO."Andy Borowitz
Much of the conversation before the opening was critical of Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, whose announcement that he would renounce his American citizenship prompted speculation that he was trying to avoid paying taxes.
#Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin ‘defriended’ US to avoid taxes. @SenBobCasey & I announce plan to stop him http://ow.ly/aYo8IChuck Schumer
The vast majority of Facebook users, however, will remain unaffected by the stock going public.
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Old people take Facebook way too serious.Trappin & Slappin
