RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: NPR's business news starts with earnings at Facebook.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: For the first time as a public company, Facebook has reported it's earnings. After its botched IPO, investors were hoping for a big, positive surprise to put the shine back on the social network. That didn't happen.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: As NPR's Steve Henn reports, Facebook recorded a loss.</s>STEVE HENN, BYLINE: Despite narrowly beating many analysts expectations in terms of revenue, Facebook's earnings disappointed investors. In after hours trading last night, the stock fell more than 10 percent - and hit record lows.</s>STEVE HENN, BYLINE: Debra Aho Williamson follows Facebook for eMarketer.</s>DEBRA AHO WILLIAMSON: Before they went public, we had forecasted that Facebook would have $6 billion in total revenue this year. Obviously, things have changed.</s>STEVE HENN, BYLINE: Now Wall Street's investment banks believe Facebook's on track to earn a billion dollars less than Williamson and other expected just a few months ago.  So what happened?</s>DEBRA AHO WILLIAMSON: What we saw last year was a lot of hyper growth.</s>STEVE HENN, BYLINE: And then it stopped.</s>STEVE HENN, BYLINE: Last year, the amount of ad revenue Facebook was bringing in the door was almost doubling every 12 months. Today, ad revenue is still growing at the company - but the rate of growth is much slower and it's decelerating.</s>STEVE HENN, BYLINE: When Facebook went public, it was valued at more than $100 billion. But that sky-high stock price was built almost entirely on expectations of what the company would do in the future. And today, expectations have changed.</s>STEVE HENN, BYLINE: Steve Henn, NPR News.
Facebook reported earnings Thursday — for the first time as a public company. After its botched IPO, Facebook's investors hoped for a positive surprise. But that didn't happen.