Sharp drop in Facebook shares | The global blackout that includes WhatsApp and Instagram

Amid the global turmoil over the general fall of the application of Mail service WhatsApp and social networks Facebook and Instagram, the shares of all three companies fell more than 6% on Wall Street.

Widespread cuts to afternoon service on Monday hit prices at the company founded by Mark Zuckerberg: opened at a value of $ 334.55 and four hours later they hit a low of $ 323.13, more than $ 10 less, to stabilize at $ 325.

The market was surprised by the IT giant’s lack of response and explanation to justify such a decline in services.

“We know that a lot of people have problems accessing our applications and products,” the Facebook spokesperson said on Twitter, explaining that the company “works to get things back to normal and we will update here ASAP. “

However, he did not specify what would be the cause affecting the services and which raised the alarm in the markets.

Beyond what happened on Monday, The punishment of investors against Mark Zuckerberg’s company began long before the blackout. For weeks, the firm has been in the eye of the storm.

A press investigation the Wall Street newspaper, put on the table the effects of this social network on the mental health of users. Now, US senators are demanding that the firm make public its entire internal investigation into the damage that some of its platforms are causing to vulnerable groups, including children.

Since the American newspaper began publishing its investigation on September 13, theThe company’s shares fell more than 12% and the company lost around $ 100 billion in market capitalization.

This Monday the situation worsened when the source of the investigation was revealed: it is Frances Haugen, a former employee of the company, responsible for leaking the documents from which the investigations were generated around the social network.

Monopoly

Facebook bought Instagram on April 9, 2012, after paying $ 1 billion in cash and stocks.

Two years later he acquired WhatsApp, in February 2014, for $ 1.9 billion, including $ 4 billion in cash, $ 12 billion in Facebook shares and $ 3 billion in exclusive shares for the founders of WhatsApp, Jan Koum and Brian Acton.

The group of companies has a market valuation of $ 914.8 billion and ranks sixth in the ranking of the world’s largest companies., behind Apple, Saudi Aramco, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet (Google).