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From Facebook to Robinhood: 10 IPO debuts that struggled and what followed

These IPO flops, including Facebook, Uber and Rivian, trace 10 hyped stock market debuts from 2011 to 2021 and the corporate turns that followed

David Vives / Unsplash

An initial public offering sets a price before a single share trades in public. From the first trade onward, the market sets its own price. The two numbers do not always agree, and the gap between them is where many hyped stock market debuts have come undone.

The offer price, also called the IPO price, is agreed between a company and the banks underwriting its sale before trading begins. First-day trading is the first public test of that number. Demand gathered before a listing does not guarantee buyers at that price once the market opens. When a stock falls below its offer price, traders say it has broken issue. Investors who bought at the offer then hold shares worth less than they paid.

A weak start does not decide a company's long-term fate. Facebook $META priced its shares at $38 when it listed on the Nasdaq $NDAQ on May 18, 2012. The exchange had technical problems on the first day, and the stock later fell below $38. It recovered over roughly the following year, and its parent company now operates as Meta Platforms.

This slideshow covers 10 IPO flops and troubled listings from 2011 to 2021. It is a selection of widely covered offerings, not a ranking. Some fell in first-day trading, as Uber $UBER, Peloton and Robinhood did. Others, including Snap $SNAP, Lyft $LYFT and Rivian $RIVN, slid below their offer prices in later trading. Snap and Rivian first traded above their IPO prices before that reversal.

The question of where those stocks are now is answered here through verified corporate outcomes, not share prices that move every trading day. Groupon, which listed at $20 in November 2011, carried out a reverse stock split in 2020. Zynga's run as a public company ended when Take-Two Interactive $TTWO completed its acquisition in May 2022. WeWork withdrew its planned 2019 IPO. It went public through a SPAC merger in October 2021 and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2023.

The slides follow in order of listing date. Each one names the company, its offer price and listing date, and what happened to the shares once the public could trade them.

Facebook's 2012 Nasdaq IPO and its slide below $38

BoliviaInteligente / Unsplash

Facebook $META went public on the Nasdaq $NDAQ on May 18, 2012, at an offer price of $38 a share. The stock later fell below that price, then recovered over roughly the following year.

The debut ran into trouble on its first day. The Nasdaq had technical problems as trading in the new shares got under way. Those problems sat with the exchange, not with the company selling the stock.

After the debut, Facebook shares slipped under the $38 offer price. The stock had broken issue. For a period, it traded below the level the company and its underwriters set before public trading began.

The decline did not hold. Over roughly the next year, the shares recovered. That sequence is why the Facebook listing counts as a rough debut rather than a permanent failure.

The company's name has also changed since the offering. Its parent company now operates as Meta Platforms. The 2012 listing took place under the Facebook name.

Groupon's 2011 IPO at $20 and its 2020 reverse stock split

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Groupon went public in November 2011 at $20 per share, and the stock later fell far below that offer price. In 2020, the company carried out a reverse stock split.

Groupon is a daily-deals company. It sells discounted vouchers for local businesses such as restaurants, spas and fitness studios. It keeps a share of each voucher sale.

For shareholders, the $20 offer price is the yardstick for the listing. Buyers in the IPO paid that amount for each share. Any later trade below it marked a loss on paper for anyone still holding from the offering.

A reverse stock split works in the opposite direction from an ordinary split. The company combines a set number of existing shares into one new share. The share count falls, and the price per share rises by the same proportion.

Ownership stays the same. A shareholder who held 1% of........

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