The social media firm updated investors with a slew of good news: triple-digit quarterly profits, users up 7.1%, lower costs and ad sales of $38.4bn in the first three months of this calendar year against $22.7bn in the same period last year. Its hugely lampooned, money-burning virtual reality emitted a beep as it crossed the $1bn revenue threshold. All these measures notwithstanding, and to ensure that no one doubted its confidence, the company paid its first dividend. It amounts to a dividend payment – 50 cents in this particular case.
The company – the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp- also committed to maintaining the status quo in that it was in a strong fiscal position and could continue to invest its money into the business while still making provisions for such payments every quarter “as things going forward”. The company’s stock had been at an all-time high prior to the announcement, and trading after closed hours showed its shares rising by more than 12%.
Technology News learned that the move to offer a dividend is an indication of maturity and reflects that Facebook has grown ahead of its 20^{th} birthday. It substantiated the change of opinion among investors in 2022. Shares of the company had fallen, and one of the influential investors, reputed as Tony Earth, wrote an open letter addressed to Mr Zuckerberg that the company had come down to the land of excess – too many people, too many ideas, too little urgency and needed to get their mojo back. In other sectors of big tech, business rose equally.
Amazon sales rose 14% from the previous year’s three months ending in December. It surpassed analysts’ estimates for growth for its earnings following strong festive holiday online shopping due to steady growth in the cloud computing business. The estimate increased Amazon shares by more than 8% in after-hours trade.
