Why Facebook Was the All-Time Worst IPO

I can't count how many times I've heard some version of the line, "Facebook's IPO was the worst of all time" in the months since it went public.

After all, Facebook shares are down more than 50% since hitting the market in May. Andrew Ross Sorkin of The New York Times put the drop into context last week. "Facebook's market value has dropped more than $50 billion in 90 days," he wrote. "To put that in perspective, that's more market value than Lehman Brothers gave up in the entire year before it filed for bankruptcy."

But that's not why I consider its IPO a failure.