Facebook stock tumbles after first loss as public company

San Francisco - Facebook's stock tumbled Thursday after its first quarterly report as a publicly traded company showed a loss, continuing the disappointing trend that has gripped the social networking leader since its IPO in May.

Following the negative earnings report investors sent the stocktumbling by over 8 per cent in after-hours trading.

The company, which raised 104 billion dollars in the public markets in the biggest ever tech IPO, reported a net loss of 157 million dollars (128 million euros) on revenue of 1.18 billion dollars.

Facebook’s revenue represented an increase of 32 per cent over the 895 million dollars it booked in the same quarter a year ago. But the 157 million dollar loss contrasted with a profit of 240 million dollars a year earlier as the employee share costs helped drive expenses to 1.93 billion dollars from 488 million dollars.

That did not satisfy investors, who sent shares down sharply in after-hours trading to 24.30 dollars, more than 30 per cent lower than Facebook’s launch price of 38 dollars a share.//DPA