Facebook loses money, shares fall 10%
Social network reports a second quarter loss, growth slows. Mobile use jumps.
Facebook shares fell up to 10% in after-hours trading after the social network reported a $US157 million second-quarter loss.
The loss was due to costs associated with employ stock compensation with Facebook's May IPO.
Adjusting for the that one-off expense, earinings were $US295 million, in line with market expectations.
However, analysts were unsettled by Facebook's failure to provide any forward guidance.
Second-quarter revenue rose 32% against the year-ago quarter to $US1.18 billion, fractionally ahead of analysts' consensus, but slower than the social network's early days when it doubled revenue quarter-on-quarter.
Year-over-year revenue growth in the first quarter was 45%, lower than the previous two periods, 55% and 104%.
Facebook shares [NAS:FB] were recently down 8.5% to $US26.84, valuing the company at $US57 billion.
Its May IPO valued the social network at $US38 a share or $US110 billion.
Facebook now has 955 million users, up from 901 million in the previous quarter.
The social network says 543 million of its members accessed its service at least once a month by mobile during the June quarter, a 67% increase over the year-ago period.
The company also introduced a new "sponsored story" feature during the quarter, but did not report on revenue specific to the initiative.
Marketing-and-sales expenses leapt to $US392 million versus the year-ago $US96 million.
General-and-administrative expenses rose to $US463 million from $US83 million.
FACEBOOK REVENUE (PROFIT/LOSS)
2004: $382,000 (no profit/loss figure reported)
2005: $9 million (no profit/loss figure reported)
2006: $48 million (no profit/loss figure reported)
2007: $153 million ($138 million loss)
2008: $272 million ($56 million loss)
2009: $777 million ($290 million profit)
2010: $1.97 billion ($606 million profit)
2011: $3.71 billion ($1 billion profit)
Source: Facebook SEC filing
NBR staff
Fri, 27 Jul 2012
Fri, 27 Jul 2012
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Facebook loses money, shares fall 10%
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