Facebook Makes Mixed IPO Debut

Facebook shares finally open, running as high as $45 in early trades as the social networking giant makes its much anticipated public debut.

Author:: Chris Ciaccia
Publish date:: May 18, 2012 12:50 PM EDT

Updated from 11:41 a.m. EST to provide more analysis from the IPO.

NEW YORK (

TheStreet

) -- It's finally here.

Facebook

(FB) - Get Report

has finally gone public, with the first trade at $42.05 per share, but the debut has not been as strong as some had expected.

The stock jumped up to $45 right away then ran down to their pricing level of $38 but never went negative. At last check, the shares were changing hands at $40.88, rising 7.6%. Volume is massive with

CNBC

reporting that more than 80 million shares changed hands in the first 30 seconds of action. Over 280 million shares have traded so far today.

After Thursday's close, Facebook

priced its IPO

at $38 per share, raising more than $16 billion in the largest tech offering in U.S. history. It's right behind

Visa

(V) - Get Report

as the largest IPO in history.

--See the 10 largest IPOs in U.S. history

There has been much hype surrounding the IPO, despite

worries about insiders cashing out.

Facebook filed an eighth version of its S-1 on Wednesday, increasing the number of Class A common stock from just over 337 million shares to 421.2 million shares. Shareholders such as

Goldman Sachs

(GS) - Get Report

, venture capital firms

Accel Partners

DST

Greylock Partners

and others significantly raised the amount of shares they are selling.

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