How Facebook’s $151 billion rout could rewrite the history books

How Facebook’s $151 billion rout could rewrite the history books

Facebook ended the after-hours session down 20% at $173.50, a loss of about $126 billion in market cap, having declined as much as 24% earlier.

Free Malaysia Today
The Facebook Inc. logo sits on screens ahead of the global launch event of “Workplace” at the Facebook Inc. offices in London, U.K., on Monday, Oct. 10, 2016. (Bloomberg pic)
SYDNEY:
Facebook Inc. has racked up plenty of milestones in its pioneering journey. Now the social-media giant is poised to add one it would doubtless rather avoid: the biggest stock-market wipeout in American history.

That could happen Thursday if the 24% tumble in Facebook’s stock in after-hours trading is replicated in the regular New York session. Its market capitalization plummeted late Wednesday, at one point by about $151 billion, as sales and user growth disappointed investors. A move of that magnitude on Thursday would likely be the largest ever loss of value in one day for a US-traded company.

The following is a look at some of history’s other notable one-day share slams, considering American firms that were worth at least $150 billion in any year over the past decade.

Back in the depths of the tech bust, Intel Corp. lost about $91 billion on one September day in 2000. Exxon Mobil Corp., already reeling from the financial crisis and recession in October 2008, lost $53 billion one wretched Wednesday that month. And the slowest profit growth at Apple Inc. in 10 years triggered a loss of almost $60 billion on January 24, 2013.

Facebook ended the after-hours session down 20% at $173.50, a loss of about $126 billion in market cap, having declined as much as 24% earlier.

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