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It's been 14 months since Facebook debuted on Wall Street and the company has finally rebounded to its initial public offering share price of $38.

On Tuesday, the free content ad network's stock rose 7 per cent to $37.96 - just a whisker away from its 18 May 2012 IPO price tag.

Facebook saw its shares hit repeated snags: first from its catastrophic Nasdaq float, which was delayed by over half an hour only then to suffer from clogged up orders as the exchange's backup system failed to cope. All of which meant investors on the day were unsure how much stock they had pocketed or for what price they had eventually bought or sold the shares.

It's understood that the IPOcalypse ended up costing brokers and traders an estimated £500m. But Nasdaq only set aside a £62m compensation pot for the exchange's meltdown.

It didn't help, either, that moneymen were repeatedly casting doubt on whether Facebook could sustain its ad-jammed business over the long term.

For months after its inglorious IPO, Facebook shares sagged heavily as early investors in the company waited for the chance to sell their stock.

The company's boss Mark Zuckerberg, however, has retained his shares. He said during Facebook's Nasdaq debut that he would not sell any stock until September 2013 at the earliest.

That decision is looking like an increasingly shrewd move by the 29-year-old Web2.0 kingpin given that his company recently posted strong quarterly results that helped plump up Facebook's shares by as high as 40 per cent.

Of course, whether the stock will stick around this level remains to be seen. It's really up to Facebook to keep wowing Wall Street - which is something it has had a tough time doing up to now. ®

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