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Monday, Dec 17, 2012 10:15 PM UTC

Going public: Key developments in Facebook’s IPO

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Topics: From the Wires,

Facebook Inc. has had a rocky initial public offering of stock. There were trading glitches on its first day of trading and concerns since then about Facebook’s revenue potential. Facebook also is facing dozens of lawsuits from disgruntled shareholders. Here’s a look at key developments in Facebook’s stock.

Feb. 1, 2012: Facebook announces IPO plans in a regulatory filing.

April 9: Facebook announces plans to buy Instagram, a photo-sharing social network, for $1 billion in cash and stock.

April 23: Still privately held, Facebook says first-quarter net income fell 12 percent to $205 million, weighed down by higher expenses even as its revenue rose 45 percent to $1.06 billion. Facebook also says it plans list its stock on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker symbol “FB.”

May 3: Facebook sets a price range of $28 to $35 for its IPO. The company and its early investors plan to sell 337.4 million shares. At the high end, that would raise as much as $11.8 billion, although not all goes to the company. Facebook’s offering values it at $76 billion to $95 billion.

May 7: Facebook begins a so-called road show. Executives travel to key cities to tell potential investors why they should invest in the stock.

May 15: Facebook increases its price range for the IPO to $34 to $38 per share. At the high end, the sale would raise about $12.8 billion and value the company at $104 billion.

May 16: Responding to extraordinary demand, Facebook adds 84 million shares, worth up to $3.2 billion, to the IPO. That brings the total to 421 million shares, or $16 billion based on a price of $38 per share, offered by Facebook and its early investors.

May 17: Facebook prices its IPO at $38 per share, raising $16 billion. The offering values Facebook at about $104 billion.

May 18: Surrounded by cheering employees and wearing his signature hoodie, CEO Mark Zuckerberg rings the opening bell of the Nasdaq stock exchange from Facebook headquarters in Silicon Valley. About two hours later, Facebook begins trading, opening at $42.05 per share after an anxiety-filled half-hour delay caused by technical problems at Nasdaq. Volume is huge: More than 500 million shares change hands. But the stock closes almost unchanged at $38.23.

May 21: Facebook’s stock closes below its IPO price.

May 29: Facebook’s stock falls below $30 for first time.

June 6: Nasdaq says it plans to hand out $40 million in cash and credit to reimburse investment firms that got ensnared by technical problems with trading Facebook stock.

June 15: Facebook seeks to consolidate the more than 40 lawsuits it faces and suggests Nasdaq is partly to blame for its stock’s price drop. Facebook also releases letters it had with federal regulators ahead of its IPO, something companies typically do after a confidentiality period ends. Facebook’s stock closes with a gain for the week for the first time.

July 26: In its first earnings report as a public company, Facebook says revenue grew 32 percent to $1.18 billion in the second quarter, slightly above analyst expectations. It had a net loss of 8 cents per share, mainly due to stock compensation expenses following its IPO. Adjusted earnings of 12 cents per share matched Wall Street’s expectations. Investors weren’t impressed, though, and its stock fell in trading.

Aug. 16: Ninety days after the stock began trading, some early investors and insiders are eligible to dump additional shares. Facebook’s stock plunges to a new low.

Aug. 17: Facebook’s stock falls further and hits $19 — half of its IPO price — just minutes before trading ended for the day.

Aug. 20: The stock price falls below $19, before bouncing back to close at $20.01. In a regulatory filing, it’s disclosed that Peter Thiel, one of Facebook’s earliest investors and a member of its board, was among the insiders selling stock after the lock-up period expired. He sold about 20 million shares through affiliates for $19.27 to $20.69 each.

Aug. 22: Federal government clears Instagram deal. Because of Facebook’s falling stock price, the $1 billion cash-and-stock deal drops to about $750 million.

Sept. 4: Facebook says Zuckerberg won’t sell stock in the company for at least the next 12 months. There had been concerns that additional shares could flood the market and depress stock prices further if Zuckerberg sold stock when he is eligible Nov. 14. The company also says employees will be able to sell their shares starting Oct. 29.

Sept. 6: Facebook says it has closed on its Instagram deal, now worth about $740 million — $300 million of it in cash and the rest in stock.

Sept. 11: Zuckerberg says the performance of Facebook’s stock “has obviously been disappointing,” and will probably cause some demoralized employees to defect. But he said he hopes most workers will stay and “double down” on Facebook’s future.

Oct. 23: Facebook reports third-quarter results that inch past Wall Street’s expectations, offering evidence that the company is making inroads in mobile advertising — a longtime concern among investors. Adjusted income was 12 cents per share, a penny better than what analysts were expecting. Revenue rose 32 percent to $1.26 billion, slightly above the $1.23 billion that analysts polled by FactSet were expecting.

Monday: Massachusetts officials announce that Morgan Stanley, the lead underwriter for the IPO, has agreed to pay a $5 million fine after they accused it of disclosing a revenue shortfall only to certain analysts and not the general public. Morgan Stanley doesn’t admit guilt.

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