Facebook loses a quarter of value in two hours – News Economy: Business

Quarterly figures weaker than expected and a gloomy prospect sent Facebook to the stock market. The course of action of the world's largest social network fell Wednesday after-hours trading to 24%.

Thus, the group lost nearly a quarter of its value. In less than two hours of breaking numbers, Facebook has lost about $ 150 billion in market capitalization. Previously, the group had disappointed investors with sales and user growth across the board. Both figures fell short of analysts' expectations.

Facebook announced that its quarterly revenues grew 42% to $ 13.23 billion. Analysts had forecast $ 13.36 billion. Facebook also missed the expectations in terms of user growth: the number rose to 2.23 billion. Experts expected to 2.25 billion users

Expected cost increases

Chief Financial Officer David Wehner has made little hope of в # <в # < improvement for investors. Sales growth rates would continue to slow in the second half of the year. In the United States, revenue growth is expected to be around 30% in the third and fourth quarters, he added.

"In the coming years, margins should reach 30%". In the second quarter, the margin fell from 47% to 44% in 2009.

In terms of costs, the company expects a 50 to 60% jump from the previous year. last year, Facebook wants to invest more in data security, marketing and content.

Probable Image Damage

Experts suspect that Facebook has violated the data protection regulations recently adopted in the EU. The number of monthly active users in the EU decreased after the introduction of the new rules of about one million, said the head of the company Mark Zuckerberg [19659003] at a meeting of analysts