each day benzinga takes a look back at a notable marketrelated moment that occurred on this date what happened on may 23 2002 netflix inc nflx went public where the market was the dow finished the day at 1021608 the sp 500 traded at 109708 what else was going on in the world in 2002 us airways filed for bankruptcy after its business took a major hit following the september 11 terrorist attacks kmart corp which is now owned by sears holdings corp shld became the largest us retail company to ever file for bankruptcy the average american income was 42409 the netflix ipo netflix has unquestionably been one of the biggest success stories of the 21st century and the company’s life on the public markets began humbly in may of 2002 at the time netflix’s business model involved mailing its 600000 subscribers dvds in small envelopes its market cap was around 300 million at the time of its ipo today netflix has a market cap of more than 82 billion and is the global leader in online tv and video entertainment netflix’s ipo priced at 15 per share since its first day of trading the stock had been one of the top performers in the entire market leading the bull market rally and returning a mindboggling 15000