Facebook published its first-ever quarterly financial report as a public company on Thursday, and posted slightly higher earnings than Wall Street analysts expected, with the world’s largest social network reporting $1.18 billion in revenue for the second quarter of 2012 or $0.12 per share. Analysts had anticipated the $0.12-per-share figured, but only thought Facebook would pull in $1.16 billion in overall revenue for the quarter.
Facebook still posted an overall loss of $157 million for the quarter, due to far higher costs in marketing and research and development, as well as increased cash spending on acquisitions such as the $1 billion purchase of Instagram in April. Still, Wall Street wasn’t amused by the results, with Facebook shares falling 11 percent in after-hours trading.
