₦airaland Forum

As Facebook stock plunged over 20 per cent in after-hours trading on Wednesday following a disappointing earnings report, CEO Mark Zuckerberg lost $17.6bn in net worth.

The 34-year-old Facebook billionaire, who had been worth as much as $86.5bn when Facebook stock traded at an all-time high earlier in the day, now has a net worth of about $68.9bn, based on regulatory filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

That figure includes some $2.7bn in cash and real estate, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire index.



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That places Zuckerberg, who had been the world’s third-richest person, at Number Six, below billionaires including Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett, French business magnate Bernard Arnault, and Zara founder Amancio Ortega.

Zuckerberg’s net worth had surpassed Buffett’s in June as shares of Facebook continued to climb and Buffett continued to give much of his wealth away in charitable donations. Today, Buffett is worth roughly about $82.3bn.

Facebook’s founder is the media company’s largest shareholder, with 12.8 percent of its shares outstanding.

Zuckerberg’s paper losses come after Facebook revealed mixed earnings and slowing growth during the second quarter of 2018.

During the quarter, the company added 22 million daily active users, lower than the 41 million it added in the same quarter a year earlier.

Chief financial officer, David Wehner, told analysts in a follow-up call to brace for a possibly deeper slowdown as the company seeks to expand new offerings such as Stories and increase privacy and security for users.

At least 16 brokerages cut their price targets on Facebook after executives said the cost of improving privacy safeguards, as well as slowing usage in the biggest advertising markets, would hit the company’s profit margins for more than two years.



Facebook shares were down 20.4 percent at $173.20 in pre-market trading, a decline that would wipe about $128bn off the company’s value — or nearly four times the entire market capitalisation of Twitter Inc.

Facebook’s second-quarter results were the first sign that a new European privacy law and a string of privacy scandals involving Cambridge Analytica and other app developers are hitting the company’s business.

Facebook also warned that the toll would not be offset by revenue growth from emerging markets and the company’s Instagram app, which has been less affected by privacy concerns.

Describing the announcements as “bombshells,” Baird analysts said the issues were, to a large degree, “self-inflicted” as Facebook sacrifices its core app monetisation to drive usage.

Of 47 analysts covering Facebook, 43 rate the stock as “buy,” two rate it “hold,” and two rate it “sell.” Their median target price is $219.30.

Some analysts said Facebook’s issues would not be easily resolved.

“Unlike Netflix, whose quarterly shortfall we saw as temporary, here we see an evolution of the story, albeit a portion of which we expected,” said Daniel Salmon, analyst at BMO Capital Markets.

Others, however, saw a silver lining in Facebook’s emphasis on more engaging content and its promotion of stories on its News Feed, which would support revenue over the longer term.

“Bears win this quarter … but not the war,” said Brent Thill, an analyst with Jefferies.

The Peoples Democratic Party has forwarded the name of Senator Ademola Adeleke to the Independent National Electoral Commission as its Osun State candidate for the September 22 governorship election in the state.

The party discarded the appeal filed by Dr Akin Ogunbiyi (who came second in the party’s primary) against Adeleke.



Our correspondent gathered that the Appeal Committee of the party examined Ogunbiyi’s grounds of appeal and found them “unworthy to warrant disqualifying Adeleke from the race or overturning his victory.”

The Appeal Committee, which met in Abuja on Monday night, was said to have handed over INEC forms to Adeleke on Tuesday morning.

Adeleke, who was also introduced to the National Executive Committee meeting of the party on Monday evening by the Senate Minority Leader, Chief Godswill Akpabio, as the party’s candidate for the election, reportedly submitted his form to the commission on Tuesday.

“We have upheld the outcome of the primary. Senator Adeleke remains the candidate of the party in Osun State,” the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, told our correspondent.

Ogunbiyi, in his petition, claimed that he won the contest. He asked that he be declared the candidate of the party in the governorship election.

Ogunbiyi, who polled 1,562 against Adeleke’s 1,569 votes, insisted that the primary was manipulated in favour of Adeleke.

He argued that 42 voided votes and 128 unaccounted votes belonged to him, claiming that the total votes he garnered were 1,732.

Ogunbiyi also questioned Adeleke’s eligibility to contest the primary, insisting that a document allegedly submitted by the lawmaker as evidence of his educational qualification up to school certificate level did not meet the basic qualification stipulated by the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and the Electoral Act.



He said, “I wish to submit that Senator Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke is not eligible to contest as a governorship candidate of the PDP having failed to meet the requirements as stipulated by Section 117 (D) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).

“Senator Adeleke submitted a document purported to be a testimonial as evidence that he was educated up to senior secondary certificate which is not suffice to meet the basic qualification stipulated by the Constitution and the Electoral Act.

“The date of issue on the purported testimonial submitted by Senator Adeleke was altered with a pen.

“The Principal of Muslim Grammar School, Ede, Mr Khalid Abbas, who purportedly signed the testimonial had not been posted to the school in question as of the date indicated on the document.”

Meanwhile, Justice David Oladimeji of the Osun State High Court has reserved ruling till Thursday in the application for an interim order to set aside the Peoples Democratic Party governorship primary election which produced Senator Ademola Adeleke as the winner of the contest.

Two members of the PDP, Rasheed Olabayo and Oluwaseun Idowu, has dragged the PDP governorship candidate to court over the allegation that he did not possess a West African School Certificate Examination result which is a constitutional requirement to contest for the governorship election.

The counsel for the applicants, Mr Olufemi Ayandokun, prayed the court for an interim order to set aside the primary and to restrain the PDP from submitting Adeleke’s name to INEC as the flag bearer as well and an interim order restraining the electoral body from accepting Adeleke as the candidate of the party.

The counsel told the court that the first applicant deposed to a 29 paragraph affidavit containing eight exhibits while urging the court to grant his prayers.

agbonkamen:
see mumu op i can not be having a conversation with a boring dude like you you are so myopic.

She also got a gift card from the same person who she says is "the one that always makes me smile"

whitebeard:
Check his name