STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: NPR's business news starts with some profits de-friending Facebook.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Weeks ahead of an initial public stock offering, Facebook yesterday released its first quarter profits, and they are down - 12 percent from a year ago. At the same time, company expenses have almost doubled. Facebook attributes some of that to market expansion, which requires more employees and infrastructure.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Facebook also announced yesterday the purchase of over 600 patents from Microsoft for $550 million.
Weeks ahead of its initial public offering, Facebook released its first quarter profits Monday, and they are down 12 percent from a year ago. At the same time, company expenses have nearly doubled. Facebook attributes some of that to market expansion, which requires more employees and infrastructure.