By Christina Nicole

Facebook, which has revolutionized our society for nearly a decade, went public today. The world’s most popular social networking site’s initial public offering of common stock was priced at $38 a share, valuing the company at $104 billion. This marked the largest initial public offering (IPO) for a U.S. tech company, raising$16 billion for the social networking site.

Facebook, which is selling 25 percent of its shares, began selling its stock at $42.05 a share. Within 20 minutes of going public, the stock lost steam and dropped back to its IPO price of $38 a share.

According to reports, the company is offering 421.2 million shares of common A stock, which includes 180 million worth of new shares that will be sold by the company. Additionally, it’s selling 241.2 million shares sold by existing shareholders such as early investors and Facebook founders.

The $38 IPO price makes CEO Mark Zuckerberg's worth approximately $19.1 billion. Other large Facebook shareholders including Dustin Moskovitz, who helped Zuckerberg start the company, is worth nearly $5.1 billion. Another founder, Eduardo Saverin, is worth about $1.4 billion.

Facebook Employees Party the Night Away
Several hundred employees celebrated all night long Thursday and participated in a companywide "hackathon." They partied late enough to stay awake until Zuckerberg rang the opening bell for the Nasdaq from Facebook's offices in Menlo Park, CA. Employees were reported to be drinking Red Bull and spinning tunes in the section of the company's headquarters known as “Hackers Square,” according to DealBook.

Facebook employees sure do have a lot to celebrate since they too are raking in the dough. It’s been reported that the average Facebook employee has nearly 34,000 shares, which amounts to almost $1.3 million at the current IPO price.

Today, more than 900 million people actively use Facebook worldwide. The site earned $1 billion in profit last year.

For more information on this story, contact me at christina@greekflix.com.