Facebook posts USD 157 mln loss for Apr-Jun

The social network giant had recorded a net income of USD 240 million in the same quarter a year ago.

The poor quarterly performance dragged down the company's share by over 8 per cent.

"... The company's IPO prospectus, share-based compensation expense related to pre-2011 restricted stock units (RSUs) was not recognised in advance of the IPO, and as a result of the IPO during the second quarter, the company recognised USD 1.3 billion of share-based compensation and related payroll tax expenses," Facebook said in a statement last night.

However, the company recorded a 32.29 per cent jump in revenues at USD 1.18 billion in the second quarter of 2012 owing primarily on contributions from advertising business.

Revenue from advertising climbed 28 per cent to USD 992 million in the three months ended June 2012.

The social network site noted 29 per cent year-over-year increase in its monthly active users (MAU) reaching 955 million. Daily active users increased 32 per cent at 552 million on average for June 2012 while Mobile MAU took off 67 per cent at 543 million.

"Our goal is to help every person stay connected and every product they use be a great social experience.

"That's why we're so focused on investing in our priorities of mobile, platform and social ads to help people have these experiences with their friends." Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.

On the flip side, the company's quarterly expenses took a 295 per cent giant leap at USD 1.92 billion in April-June quarter of 2012 compared to USD 488 million in the same quarter year earlier.

On May 18, Facebook made history by launching one of the largest IPO for a technology firm in a bid to raise USD 16 billion that valued the social networking site at USD 104 billion. However, Facebook's much anticipated IPO was marred by technical glitches at Nasdaq.

Following the announcement, shares of Facebook, which have not crossed above their USD 38 IPO price since the first day of trading, further witnessed a downward spiral. The stock tumbled by 8.5 per cent to settle at USD 26.84 on Nasdaq.

Since it went public, Facebook announced acquisition of popular photo sharing app Instagram. The company also settled a patent dispute with Yahoo!.