“Facebook’s first earnings report as a public company had solid numbers, but in the end it landed with a thud — much like its rocky initial public offering two months ago,” Barbara Ortutay reports for The Associated Press. “Facebook reported stronger-than-expected revenue and a gain in users Thursday. But investors weren’t impressed and after a brief spike, its stock fell more than 11%, or $2.965, to $23.88 in after-hours trading. The decline means Facebook stock (FB) will most likely open at its lowest level since going public.”
Ortutay reports, “It’s another big disappointment for the Harvard-born company that was supposed to usher in the next Internet boom… What may have rattled investors is that Facebook’s revenue growth has slowed. Between 2009 and 2010, the company’s revenue nearly tripled. In the first quarter of this year, revenue climbed 44%. In the second quarter, Facebook’s revenue increased 32% to $1.18 billion from $895 million a year earlier. Analysts, on average had expected slightly lower revenue of $1.16 billion, according to FactSet.”
“For a freshly public company such as Facebook, the decelerating revenue growth is a concern. A bet on fast-growing revenue is the reason investors are willing to value new companies highly even if they are not making a profit. Another reason jittery investors may be even more nervous: Facebook didn’t offer investors and financial analysts its outlook for the rest of the year,” Ortutay reports. “Overall the Menlo Park, California-based company posted a loss of $157 million, or 8 cents per share in the April-June period, mainly due to compensation expenses it incurred when it paid $1.3 billion in restricted stock and related taxes for employees as part of the IPO. The loss compared with earnings of $240 million, or 11 cents per share, in the second quarter a year ago. The company’s adjusted earnings of $295 million, or 12 cents per share, matched Wall Street’s expectations.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple has yet to turn on the iOS and OS X spigots for Facebook. They’ll do so this autumn. When Apple integrated Twitter into iOS, Twitter’s user signups skyrocketed.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “abcd” for the heads up.]
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