FB - Facebook, Inc.
221.00 -0.32 (-0.14%)
After hours: 7:59PM EST
| Previous Close | 221.44 |
| Open | 222.31 |
| Bid | 220.86 x 1200 |
| Ask | 221.30 x 1000 |
| Day's Range | 221.28 - 222.75 |
| 52 Week Range | 142.52 - 222.75 |
| Volume | 11,711,029 |
| Avg. Volume | 13,799,532 |
| Market Cap | 631.149B |
| Beta (5Y Monthly) | 1.06 |
| PE Ratio (TTM) | 35.38 |
| EPS (TTM) | 6.26 |
| Earnings Date | Jan 28, 2020 |
| Forward Dividend & Yield | N/A (N/A) |
| Ex-Dividend Date | N/A |
| 1y Target Est | 244.22 |
- TechCrunch
Yo Facebook & Instagram, stop showing Stories reruns
If I watch a Story cross-posted from Instagram to Facebook on either of the apps, it should appear as "watched" at the back of the Stories row on the other app. It's been over two years since Instagram Stories launched cross-posting to Stories. Countless hours of each feature's 500 million daily users have been squandered viewing repeats.
- Yahoo Finance
Why ‘micro-targeting’ is a problem for elections
In addition to the threat of hacking and interference from foreign actors ahead of the November elections, tech giants like Facebook micro-target users, serving up hyper-specific ads that mirror an individual’s beliefs, interests and opinions.
- MarketWatch
U.N. links Bezos phone hack to Saudi crown prince’s WhatsApp account
Experts from the United Nations called for an “immediate investigation” by the U.S. into a report commissioned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos that showed the billionaire technology mogul’s phone was likely hacked after he received a video file sent from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s WhatsApp account after the two exchanged phone numbers at a dinner in Los Angeles in 2018.
- Zacks
Facebook (FB) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know
Facebook (FB) closed at $221.32 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.05% move from the prior day.
- Bloomberg
ByteDance Is Seeking a New CEO for Its TikTok Business
(Bloomberg) -- Chinese internet giant ByteDance Inc. is seeking a new chief executive officer for its TikTok business, a hugely popular video app that American politicians have targeted as a potential security threat.The company has interviewed candidates in recent months for the CEO role, which would be based in the U.S., according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the search is private. In one potential scenario, the new CEO would oversee TikTok’s non-technical functions, including advertising and operations, while current TikTok chief Alex Zhu would continue to manage the majority of product and engineering out of China, one person said. The hiring process is ongoing and the envisioned role could still change depending on who is selected, the people added.Zhu, who co-founded a predecessor to TikTok called Musical.ly, took over the business last year, though ByteDance also has a Chinese version of TikTok called Douyin, which is run by a different management team. The eventual corporate structure involving Zhu and the new CEO is still unclear, the people said, and Bytedance has hired executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles to help lead the process.A spokesman for TikTok declined to comment. Heidrick & Struggles didn’t respond to a request for comment.The new hire won’t affect the role of Vanessa Pappas, who currently oversees TikTok’s U.S. operations from Los Angeles, one person said. In a blog post Wednesday, Pappas wrote that TikTok has opened a new Culver City office with plans to “scale our local operations,” and now has more than 400 U.S. employees.“While we are a global company, having a permanent office in LA speaks to our commitment to the U.S. market and deepens our bonds with the city, and the talent and companies, that call it home,” she wrote.Beijing-based ByteDance, led by CEO Yiming Zhang, has built TikTok and Douyin into some of the world’s most popular apps with more than a billion users between them who share short video clips of things like lip-syncing and dance videos. That has made ByteDance the most valuable tech startup in the world, challenging the dominance of U.S. companies like Facebook Inc. and Snap Inc.The app is growing fast and drawing a lot of attention from advertisers and competitors. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said over the weekend he thought TikTok alone could grow to be larger than Instagram, which has more than 1 billion active users and has been the go-to social media destination for young people in the U.S.With rising tensions between China and the U.S., however, American politicians have warned the app represents a national-security threat. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., better known as CFIUS, has begun a review of ByteDance’s 2017 purchase of the business that became TikTok, Bloomberg News reported in November.ByteDance is weighing a range of options to address those concerns, from an aggressive legal defense to the sale of a stake in TikTok, Bloomberg News reported in December. A representative for the company said at the time there have been no discussions about any partial or full sale of TikTok.“I remain deeply concerned that any platform or application that has Chinese ownership or direct links to China, such as TikTok, can be used as a tool by the Chinese Communist Party to extend its authoritarian censorship of information outside China’s borders and amass data on millions of unsuspecting users,” U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida, wrote in a letter to the Treasury Department, which chairs CFIUS.The hiring of a new U.S. CEO may be aimed at resolving those security concerns, the people said. It’s possible ByteDance is searching for a candidate who could help address questions in Washington or for someone with the skills to lead an independent business if it faces pressure to separate TikTok from the Chinese parent. It’s unclear how much autonomy this new CEO would have. A number of successful tech companies are led by CEOs who also have influence over product direction, including Facebook, Snap and Twitter.ByteDance would prefer to maintain full control of the business if possible, given its soaring popularity and profit potential, Bloomberg News reported earlier. It may argue that TikTok presents no security threat or that the U.S. has no legal standing over the business.TikTok has said it strives to create a safe and positive online environment. “We are not influenced by any foreign government, including the Chinese government; TikTok does not operate in China, nor do we have any intention of doing so in the future,” the company said in October.(Updates with detail on search company in the third paragraph.)\--With assistance from Zheping Huang.To contact the reporters on this story: Kurt Wagner in San Francisco at kwagner71@bloomberg.net;Sarah Frier in San Francisco at sfrier1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net, Jillian Ward, Andrew PollackFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- MarketWatch
Facebook, Amazon and Apple set records in annual spending on lobbying
The spending has come as Big Tech increasingly finds itself in lawmakers and regulators’ cross hairs.
- Barrons.com
7 Internet Stocks That Should Climb Higher This Year, According to an Analyst
Pivotal Research Group analyst Michael Levine lifted his price targets for Facebook, Alphabet, Twitter, Amazon.com, and three other internet stocks.
- Bloomberg
Facebook Opens Wallet, Leading Peers in Newly Hostile Washington
(Bloomberg) -- Four of the five biggest U.S. technology giants boosted their lobbying spending last year as they battled charges of unfair competition, sought to shape privacy legislation and pursued large government contracts in an increasingly hostile Washington.Facebook Inc. led spending increases by Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., and Microsoft Corp. Search giant parent Alphabet Inc. was the lone member of the quintet with a decline.Alphabet’s Google reported a 44% decline in 2019 spending, to $11.8 million from $21.2 million. The company spent much of last year reshuffling its Washington office, including ending its relationships with more than a dozen lobbyists at six outside firms. It also replaced Susan Molinari, a former Republican House member, with Mark Isakowitz, a onetime GOP Senate aide, to head up its Washington policy shop.The tech industry has become one of the biggest spenders in Washington and is rivaling traditional lobbying powerhouses, including the pharmaceutical industry and big business lobbies.Together, the five biggest tech companies by market value shelled out $62.2 million in 2019, 3% less than what they spent the year before. That topped the biggest spender among the business groups, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which spent $58.2 million to lobby in 2019.It was also more than double the $28.9 million spent by the pharmaceutical industry’s lead trade group, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which typically conducts the lion’s share of the industry’s lobbying.On a company level, the five largest U.S. drug makers -- Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co., Pfizer Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Eli Lilly & Co. -- spent $34.7 million in lobbying last year, 44% less than the five biggest tech companies.While the amounts spent on lobbying by the tech giants pale in comparison with the billions in revenue each company receives and, in some cases now, their trillion-dollar market values -- money can buy influence in the nation’s capital.The disclosures, which are filed quarterly with Congress, include amounts spent to weigh in on legislation or other pressing matters before Congress, the White House and Executive Branch agencies. The reports were due Tuesday.Existential ThreatsWith their broad portfolios, U.S. tech companies have been worried about everything from Trump’s trade deals to stalled privacy legislation and drone regulations. But perhaps their most existential threats are the antitrust probes.The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission are reviewing the biggest internet platforms to determine if they are harming competition. The FTC is scrutinizing Facebook and Amazon, while the Justice Department is investigating Google and is also looking at Facebook.Large coalitions of state attorneys general are likewise considering cases against Facebook and Google.For more: Justice Department Questions Publishers in Ongoing Google ProbeIn addition, the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel, led by Rhode Island Democrat David Cicilline, has a sprawling inquiry underway. Cicilline has hauled executives before his subcommittee and peppered the companies with exhaustive questions about their business practices.Facebook surged to the front of the pack among the tech behemoths. The social-media company spent $16.7 million last year, its highest-ever yearly spending and up 32% from $12.6 million in 2018. It lobbied on such issues as intellectual property, cybersecurity, privacy, cryptocurrency and election integrity, according to the annual lobbying disclosures.E-commerce giant Amazon was close behind Facebook, upping its spending to a record $16.1 million from $14.2 million. Despite the increase, its public policy shop has experienced a number of high-profile failures. In October, for example, Amazon learned that it lost a $10 billion Pentagon cloud contract to rival Microsoft.Amazon has blamed that loss on presidential meddling. Numerous parts of the “evaluation process contained clear deficiencies, errors, and unmistakable bias -- and it’s important that these matters be examined and rectified,” the company said in November.It doesn’t help that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and President Donald Trump have been feuding since before Trump was elected and that Bezos owns the Washington Post, which Trump sees as one of his fiercest critics.Apple RecordApple’s $7.4 million lobbying outlay last year was also a record. That amount was up 10% from $6.7 million in 2018. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has had a better working relationship with Trump than have many of his tech rivals. He was among several dozen global tech leaders who attended a breakfast with the president at the World Economic Forum conference in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday.But Cook is also in the hot seat for his company’s refusal to help the FBI unlock an encrypted iPhone used by the Saudi air force student who allegedly killed three people at a Florida naval base.Microsoft, which spent $10.2 million on lobbying last year, up from $9.5 million the year before, has largely avoided the political pitfalls of its peers. Winning the Pentagon’s lucrative cloud contract was a major victory, considering its underdog status. In August, Pentagon vendors also were awarded a contract worth as much as $7.6 billion to provide Microsoft software to the Defense Department.Privacy PushSome of the big checks Facebook, Google and others are writing in Washington are going to lobbying firms and trade groups pushing industry-friendly privacy bills. The industry hoped to see federal privacy legislation adopted last year, but that didn’t happen.California’s new privacy law went into effect Jan. 1, becoming the most influential U.S. privacy statute. New York, Washington State and others are considering their own privacy bills, which could create a patchwork of state privacy regulations, making compliance difficult for global tech giants.The tech companies, hoping to avoid that, are again lobbying Congress to adopt a federal privacy law before the 2020 elections.Chinese telecommunications company Huawei Technologies Co., after minimal outlays, started spending heavily on lobbying in the second half of last year as it found itself in the crosshairs of the Trump administration. In May, the Commerce Department placed the company on a blacklist designed to cut it off from U.S. suppliers.Huawei spent $1.1 million in the fourth quarter and nearly $3 million for the full year, up from $165,000 in 2018. The increase was primarily to pay lobbyist Michael Esposito, who touts his connections to Trump, though the president has said he doesn’t know him.Trade WarsIn the final months of 2019, companies and trade groups intensified their lobbying on international trade issues as the Trump administration sought to end the tariff war with China and pass a new trade deal with Mexico and Canada.Earlier this year, the U.S. and China signed what they billed as the first phase of a broader trade pact that commits China to do more to crack down on the theft of American technology and avoid currency manipulation. The Senate passed Trump’s U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement or USMCA, which replaced the North America Free Trade Agreement, following House passage late last year.The National Association of Manufacturers’ spending on federal lobbying rose to $8.4 million in the last three months of 2019, a nearly 313% jump compared with the third quarter, and $14.6 million in all of 2019. The trade group lobbied on both China and North American trade issues, according to its filings.\--With assistance from Naomi Nix.To contact the reporters on this story: Eric Newcomer in San Francisco at enewcomer@bloomberg.net;Ben Brody in Washington, D.C. at btenerellabr@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net, ;Molly Schuetz at mschuetz9@bloomberg.net, Paula DwyerFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks
Facebook (FB) Earnings Expected to Grow: Should You Buy?
Facebook (FB) possesses the right combination of the two key ingredients for a likely earnings beat in its upcoming report. Get prepared with the key expectations.
- Barrons.com
The Case for ‘Cash Cows’ Like Alphabet, Ford, and Facebook
Companies with strong cash flow compared to their market value seem like a good bet, Jefferies says, considering the current market conditions.
- Barrons.com
U.N. Calls for Investigation Into Jeff Bezos Phone Hack. Here’s How They Say It Happened.
The Guardian, the Financial Times, and the Washington Post reported on Tuesday that the Amazon leader’s cellphone was hacked after he received a WhatsApp message from Saudi Arabian Crown Price Mohammed bin Salman.
- Investopedia
Facebook Earnings: What to Look For From FB
Facebook (FB) reports Q4 earnings after close on January 29. Will the company deliver when it comes to monthly active users?
- MarketWatch
Amazon hits $200 billion mark beating Google and Apple to become world’s most valuable brand
Amazon has boosted its position as the world’s most valuable brand surpassing Google, Apple and Microsoft, according to a global report.
- Zacks
The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Facebook, Apple, Alibaba, Amazon and Alphabet
The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Facebook, Apple, Alibaba, Amazon and Alphabet
- MarketWatch
Apple has soared out of the value realm, but you may still be able to find success on this stock list
DEEP DIVE It’s happening again: The financial media is touting a potential shifting of investors to value stocks from the growth stocks that have propelled the extended bull market in the U.S. This last happened in September and October, though the value buzz ended up being short-lived.
- Market Exclusive
Market Morning: Libra Letdown, Bezos Hacked, Trump Complains, Dirty Water
Libra Stablecoin Gets Door Slammed in Face in Australia, Switzerland Facebook’s (NASDAQ:FB) stablecoin cryptocurrency Libra is bashing its head against a wall of regulators and the wall won't budge. Monetary authorities in Australia and Switzerland are the latest to give Libra a hard time, which is understandable since if and when it goes into circulation, […]The post Market Morning: Libra Letdown, Bezos Hacked, Trump Complains, Dirty Water appeared first on Market Exclusive.
- Reuters
Facebook spurred central banks to study digital currencies: former Japan central banker
The challenge posed by Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency likely prodded major central banks to set up a new group to study the potential for issuing their own digital currencies, a former Bank of Japan executive said on Wednesday. The central banks of Britain, the euro zone, Japan, Canada, Sweden and Switzerland on Tuesday announced a plan to share experiences to look at the case for issuing digital currencies, amid a growing debate over the future of money. Hiromi Yamaoka, former head of the BOJ's division overseeing payment and settlement systems, said the decision was a sign of how Libra has triggered a global competition among central banks to make their currencies more appealing.
- Financial Times
EU and US regulators scrutinise Big Tech and digital ‘monopoly’
If 2019 was about “techlash,” the public backlash against Big Tech, 2020 will centre on a race between the world’s largest platform companies — particularly Google, Facebook and Amazon — and the regulators that want to bring them to heel. Margrethe Vestager, EU competition commissioner, has new powers allowing her to bring together the issues of privacy, monopoly and security. Ms Vestager has floated the idea of using obscure rules that could force companies to “cease and desist” from activities considered problematic while waiting for the outcome of antitrust cases.
- Reuters
How social media services handle political ads
Online platforms including Facebook and Alphabet Inc's Google face growing pressure to stop carrying political ads that contain false or misleading claims ahead of the U.S. presidential election. In the United States, the Communications Act prevents broadcast stations from rejecting or censoring ads from candidates for federal office once they have accepted advertising for that political race, although this does not apply to cable networks like CNN, or to social media sites, where leading presidential candidates are spending millions to target voters in the run-up to the November 2020 election. Facebook exempts politicians from its third-party fact-checking program, allowing them to run ads with false claims.
- Investor's Business Daily
These Are The 5 Best Stocks To Buy And Watch Now
Buying the right stocks at the right time is key to investing. Check out RH, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Bill.com, Insulet and Dexcom.
- Investor's Business Daily
Facebook Stock Gets Price-Target Increase On Positive Ad Outlook
Seeing an expanding runway for online advertising growth, a Wall Street equity analyst on Tuesday raised his price target on Facebook stock and maintained the equivalent of a buy rating.
- Reuters
Vodafone Group exits Facebook-led Libra currency group
The association has seen an exodus of its backers including financial companies Paypal Holdings Inc and Mastercard Inc amid regulatory scrutiny. Facebook announced in June last year a plan to launch the digital currency in partnership with other members of the association, but the project quickly ran into trouble with skeptical regulators around the world.
- Bloomberg
Vodafone Abandons Facebook-Led Libra Cryptocurrency Project
(Bloomberg) -- Telecom giant Vodafone Group Plc left the Libra Association, becoming the latest company to exit the Facebook-led group trying to create a new global cryptocurrency.The Libra Association, which was finalized last October, once expected to have as many as 28 total members when the project was announced in June. It is now down to 20 following earlier departures from Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc. and others that had committed to the project but then left before the group signed an official charter.“Vodafone is no longer a member of the Libra Association,” Dante Disparte, head of policy and communication for the association, said in a statement. “Although the makeup of the Association members may change over time, the design of Libra’s governance and technology ensures the Libra payment system will remain resilient. The Association is continuing the work to achieve a safe, transparent, and consumer-friendly implementation of the Libra payment system.”The idea for Libra -- a global, digital currency intended to make cross-border money transfers as easy as sending a text message -- has faced opposition at every turn. Facebook, the world’s largest social network, first proposed the idea last June, along with a number of high-profile partners. Many of them are no longer involved, and Facebook has pledged to appease all U.S. regulators before launching the currency. It’s unclear how long that might take.Coindesk earlier reported news of Vodafone’s departure from the group.In a statement, U.K.-based Vodafone said it plans to focus on its own digital payments efforts instead. Vodafone partly owns Safaricom Plc, which operates the M-Pesa mobile-payments app in Kenya, where more people keep their money on their phones rather than in banks. The text message-based app is used by about 35 million people globally to spend, borrow and send money to friends and family.“We will continue to monitor the development of the Libra Association and do not rule out the possibility of future co-operation,” Vodafone spokesman Steve Shepperson-Smith said.\--With assistance from Jenny Surane and Scott Moritz.To contact the reporter on this story: Kurt Wagner in San Francisco at kwagner71@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Robin AjelloFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks
Tech Daily: Facebook, Apple, Digital Taxes & More
Facebook's role in elections and its UK expansion, Apple's Cook in Ireland, Alibaba's certification and the EU ban on facial recognition technology are the top stories.
