San Francisco: Facebook Inc’s privacy crisis has turned into a shareholder crisis.
The social media giant has lost over $60 billion (Dh220 billion) in market value over the past two days, following revelations that personal data of millions of users was obtained by a data analytics firm. That’s more than the market capitalisation of Tesla Inc at around $52 billion or three times that of Snapchat owner Snap Inc at about $19 billion.
Facebook shares tumbled 6.8 per cent on Monday, the most in almost four years, and the sell-off resumed on Tuesday with news that the US Federal Trade Commission is reportedly investigating the handling of user data, and a report that Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos plans to leave. Shares fell 4.7 per cent to $164.51 at 2:23pm in New York.
The two-day rout is the worst since July 2012, the year of Facebook’s initial public offering at $38 a share.
