Facebook Proves Adept at Beating Lowered Expectations
The social media giant may seem clueless at times, but it can manage investors.
Facebook buys time while it hones its moneymaking prowess.
Photographer: Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images
This shouldn’t be a surprising quality in one of the world’s most valuable companies, but it’s worth saying: Facebook Inc. is savvy.
This company has a list of problems longer than a drugstore receipt. It’s a creepy data hoarder. It has botched efforts around the globe to stem violence or other abuses on its internet hangouts, and it was an unwitting star of the recent special counsel investigation involving President Donald Trump. Regulators and politicians worldwide are screaming constantly at the company for its various sins — and that’s starting to hit Facebook in its pocketbook. It shed more stock market value last July than any company in U.S. history when it warned that revenue growth would slow, profit margins would shrink and steam was running out in its most successful form of advertising.