Last but not least: Facebook's debut heralded with stock chaos and lawsuit
Facebook got off to a rocky start on the New York Stock Exchange. After a rapid rise of about 12 percent shortly after the market opened, the social network's stock fell to just above its offering price.
The closing price of the share was 38.23 dollars, which is not a big gain - just 0.6% to be precise. According to the Wall Street Journal, the only reason the share price did not fall below the issue price was because the banks involved in the IPO intervened with massive support purchases. Nevertheless, many Facebook employees became millionaires after the IPO was heralded. But the ringing of the bell also meant the start of some unexpected events. The planned start of actual trading was delayed further and further. When the Facebook share was finally able to be traded, the first price was 43 dollars.
The delay has not gone unnoticed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. According to Tagesschau.de the SEC announced that it wanted to investigate the causes of the technical glitches and the sometimes chaotic trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange. A class action lawsuit was filed by former Facebook users at the same time as the IPO. The plaintiffs are demanding 15 billion dollars in punitive damages and compensation for pain and suffering. The reason for the lawsuit is that the network continued to record their user traces on the internet long after they had logged out of their profile.
At least one thing went absolutely smoothly at the Facebook IPO: When 28-year-old Mark Zuckerberg pressed the symbolic button at the opening of the trading day, the bell rang out on the New York technology exchange Nasdaq, heralding the new trading day.
