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Friday 27 July 2012

Facebook shares fall


Facebook shares fell 11% in after-hours trade after it reported its first results since its flotation in May.

The results were slightly ahead of analysts' expectations. Second quarter revenues rose 32% to $1.18bn (£751m) and it reported a $157m loss.

But concerns remain Facebook is yet to work out how to make money from people using the site on mobile devices.

The loss was due to having to make payments to early investors, including chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.

"We're disappointed about how the stock is traded but the important thing for us is to stay focused on the fact that we're the same company now as we were before," Facebook's chief financial officer David Ebersman told an analyst call.

Shervin Pishevar, managing director of Menlo Ventures, and a Facebook shareholder, told the BBC that he was not worried about Thursday's share price fall.

Given the extraordinary hype in the run-up to an IPO that valued the social network at more than $100bn, it is perhaps not surprising that revenues rose. Businesses that had never thought of advertising on Facebook must have been inspired to give it a try.

Investors will also be pleased to see user numbers heading closer to one billion, though with evidence of a rash of fake Facebook profiles there will be questions about how reliable these numbers are.

The bubble of excitement that inflated in the run-up to the IPO has burst, and it may take many more quarters of sustained revenue growth to convince the sceptics that this is really a $100bn business.
"I don't think there's any kind of predictions you can make in the short term. We take a very long term view [and] all of the numbers are incredibly exciting," he said.



Culled: BBC News

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