(Bloomberg) – Facebook Inc. shares rallied after an antitrust win helped push its market value above $ 1 trillion, making the social media giant the fastest company to reach the milestone. .
Facebook shares rose 4.2% on Monday to $ 355.64, the most in two months, after a judge approved its request to dismiss two complaints filed last year by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general.
The stock has advanced 30% this year amid increased public reliance on Facebook apps to stay in touch with friends and businesses during the covid-19 pandemic, generating steady growth in users and strong demand for digital advertising.
Nearly three years after Apple Inc. became the first U.S. company to hit the trillion-dollar mark, there are now four other U.S. tech companies with 13-digit valuations, including Microsoft Corp., Amazon. .com Inc. and Google’s parent Alphabet Inc. Facebook, which Mark Zuckerberg co-founded in 2004 at Harvard University, is the youngest of all to reach the milestone, reaching $ 1 trillion in just 17 years.
Growth has come at a cost. Zuckerberg was so focused on adding users and revenue, even buying the competitive apps Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014, that he ignored some of the downsides of networks where more than 3.45 billion people contribute content.
Zuckerberg has testified before the US Congress several times about various Facebook errors. Regulators have denounced that, during its rise, Facebook lost control over its users’ data and did not do enough to limit the flow of potentially harmful or violent information. The US Federal Trade Commission, along with 46 state attorneys general, sued Facebook in December for anti-competitive behavior, saying the size of the company has caused consumer harm, including inferior product quality. James Boasberg, a US District Judge, said Monday that the Federal Trade Commission failed to establish that Facebook monopolizes social media. The agency may resubmit the complaint within the next 30 days.
Still, from an investor’s perspective, Facebook is thriving. The company faced doubts in its 2012 IPO that it could ever make significant money from mobile phone users. Since proving that his advertising business would work there too, he has consistently found ways to exceed expectations for revenue and profit, and to ensure that more people sign up to use his products.
Facebook said in April that revenue in the current quarter will either remain flat or accelerate from the first quarter, when sales expanded 48% to $ 26.2 billion. Of the 58 analysts tracked by Bloomberg who cover Facebook, 49 recommend buying the shares, 6 have hold ratings and 3 favor the sale.
Nota Original:Facebook Rally Vaults It Past $1 Trillion in Record Pace (1)
