At market close Wednesday, Facebook Inc. was worth $630 billion.
One day later: $510 billion.
That roughly $120 billion loss in market cap tops the list of biggest one-day routs in recent stock market history — and by a very wide, $30-billion margin.
Facebook stock FB, +1.70% ended down 19% on Thursday, its ugliest single-session decline since it became a publicly traded entity on May 18, 2012. According to WSJ Market Data, Facebook’s drop is the biggest one-day loss in history among the current top 25 companies by market cap and some other notables.
Some more perspective on just how huge a number $120 billion is (in case you need that): The drop is larger than the individual market caps of 464 of the 500 companies in the S&P 500, or 92.8% of them. And if you were to add up the market caps of the bottom 21 companies in the S&P 500, it’s bigger than that, too.
The stock to come closest to Facebook’s nightmare day was Intel on Sept. 22, 2000, during the fallout of the dot-com bust. Intel INTC, -0.51% lost $91 billion that day, with the stock tumbling 22%, after it revealed weakening demand in Europe and projected revenue growth far below what analysts were expecting.
Next up on the disaster hit list is Microsoft’s MSFT, -1.09% $80 billion drop on April 3, 2000, also in the days of the dot-com fallout. Then comes Apple’s AAPL, +0.41% January 2013 drop, when lackluster earnings results and a slew of analyst price-target cuts caused it to shed nearly $60 billion in market cap in one day — and lose its title of world’s most valuable company.
But by the end of 2013, Apple’s market cap was back above its level before that massive one-day drop and, of course, it has long since regained the title of most valuable company (Amazon’s recent surge notwithstanding) — some history that Facebook investors may want to keep in mind in the months ahead.
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By Market Watch
Facebook’s plunge drops Zuckerberg down the billionaire ranks — behind a guy many Americans may not know
If Facebook’s drop in value holds through the close of trading, Zuckerberg will drop three spots on the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index.
The massive drop in Facebook’s FB-18.96% stock is shaking things up -- not just for investors and market watchers, but in rankings of the world’s richest people.
Facebook lost about $120 billion in market capitalization on Thursday after its latest quarterly earnings report showed the social media giant missed expectations on revenue and is experiencing slowing user and revenue growth.
Facebook stock sank 19% on Thursday, knocking Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune down by about $15.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index.
Not only did he lose a massive amount of wealth, but he also lost his title on the podium of richest people in the world. Zuckerberg dropped from No. 3 to No. 6 richest person, putting him behind someone many Americans may not know much about: Amancio Ortega.
Textile mogul Ortega founded fast-fashion giant Zara with his then-wife Rosalia in the 1970s, and retail company, Inditex SA ES:ITX-0.8% has since grown to include Zara, Massimo Dutti, and Pull&Bear. Ortega is often described as being incredibly private, and he rarely gives media interviews, one reason why many Americans may not know much about him.
He has been described as having frugal, down-to-earth habits, given his enormous wealth. Ortega has been said to mostly reside in a discreet apartment in Spain, is known to eat lunch with co-workers in the Zara cafeteria, and -- much like Zuckerberg -- wears a simple uniform. No zip-up hoodie for Ortega, though: he typically sports a blue blazer, white shirt, and gray trousers.
Zuckerberg is also set to drop behind CEO of Berkshire Hathaway BRK Warren Buffett, and chief executive officer of LVMH IT:LVMH-0.71% Bernard Arnault on the rich list.
The current No. 1 and 2 spots are held by Amazon AMZN-2.98% CEO Jeff Bezos and Microsoft MSFT-1.09% founder Bill Gates.
To keep all of this in perspective, though, Zuckerberg’s net worth was previously estimated at about $86.5 billion, and the share price drop now puts him at a net worth of $70.6 billion. And, year to date, he is only down by about $2.2 billion.
Source: By Market Watch
OH Poor Zuckie Boy. NOT! With 70 billion USD you'll live
