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Zuckerberg Loses $16.8 Billion in a Snap as Facebook Plunges

Mark Zuckerberg is counting the cost of user disenchantment with Facebook Inc.

Zuckerberg Loses $16.8 Billion in a Snap as Facebook Plunges
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer and founder of Facebook Inc., holds his phone after the morning session at the Allen & Co. Media and Technology Conference in Sun Valley. (Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Mark Zuckerberg is counting the cost of user disenchantment with Facebook Inc.

His fortune tumbled by $16.8 billion in late trading Wednesday, as shares of the social media giant slid 20 percent at 5:37 p.m. in New York on disappointing results. If that holds through Thursday’s close, he will slide to sixth place from third on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. It would also wipe his $13.7 billion of gains for the year, leaving him with just less than $70 billion.

Zuckerberg Loses $16.8 Billion in a Snap as Facebook Plunges

Second-quarter revenue and average daily visitors fell short of analysts’ estimates, according to a statement from the Menlo Park, California-based company. Revenue increased 42 percent to $13.2 billion, missing the $13.3 billion Wall Street consensus. The company is grappling with new data laws in Europe, criticism over its content policies and privacy issues.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Metcalf in New York at tmetcalf7@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net, Peter Eichenbaum

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