Facebook lost more value today (July 26) than any other publicly traded US company ever.
Its share price began to tank in after-hours trading last night when the company posted second-quarter earnings that came in below analysts’ expectations. Then chief financial officer David Wehner said recent adjustments and challenges to Facebook’s business, many a result of a scandal-scarred past few months and years, could have a negative impact on revenue for the next few quarters. And the stock price sank even further.
Shares barely recovered during daytime trading hours today, closing at $176.26, a drop of about 19% from yesterday’s Nasdaq close of $217.50. The price drop resulted in the single-worst one-day fall in a company’s market capitalization in Wall Street history, plummeting from $631.2 billion on July 25 to $511.5 billion, according to Sentieo. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is reported to have lost around $11 billion in his personal worth.
It’s the fourth massive drop in market cap for traded companies in 2018, with the year now accounting for one-third of the 12 largest drops ever, according to FactSet. The previous record-holder for the largest drop was Intel in September 2000, and prior to that, Microsoft in April of that year—the height of the dot-com bust.
But we’re definitely not in a bubble, no siree.