Re:Delay, Deny and Deflect: How Facebook’s Leaders Fought Th...
by JumpCrisscross on Thursday November 15, 2018 @09:17AM
(#18459356)
> Is there an actual crisis, outside the media narrative?
There isn't much short-term stock prices are good for. Determining if investors will bet there is a problem is one of them.
Facebook's stock is down 20% YoY [1]. Unless you believe investors were blindsided by stalling rich-country MAU growth due to demographic saturation, the market is pricing something in. Facebook, too, appears to believe there something is awry--Q3 2018 operating income was down 8 points relative to the same period in 2017, due mostly to costs and expenses ballooning 53% over the same period [2].
If the New York Times' sources about Zuckerberg hiring PR firms to write hit pieces against those criticizing Facebook are accurate, it seems he, too, sees a crisis.
It requires multiple suspensions of disbelief to think this is a manufactured problem. Facebook has been a principal actor in major scandals and atrocities around the world, appears to have reacted petulantly, and relies almost existentially on not having Instagram and WhatsApp torn out of it by antitrust regulators. The final point makes political vulnerability salient to its future.
[1] 144.55 on 12 November 2018 / 177.95 on 15 November 2017
There isn't much short-term stock prices are good for. Determining if investors will bet there is a problem is one of them.
Facebook's stock is down 20% YoY [1]. Unless you believe investors were blindsided by stalling rich-country MAU growth due to demographic saturation, the market is pricing something in. Facebook, too, appears to believe there something is awry--Q3 2018 operating income was down 8 points relative to the same period in 2017, due mostly to costs and expenses ballooning 53% over the same period [2].
If the New York Times' sources about Zuckerberg hiring PR firms to write hit pieces against those criticizing Facebook are accurate, it seems he, too, sees a crisis.
It requires multiple suspensions of disbelief to think this is a manufactured problem. Facebook has been a principal actor in major scandals and atrocities around the world, appears to have reacted petulantly, and relies almost existentially on not having Instagram and WhatsApp torn out of it by antitrust regulators. The final point makes political vulnerability salient to its future.
[1] 144.55 on 12 November 2018 / 177.95 on 15 November 2017
[2] https://investor.fb.com/investor-news/press-release-details/...