This week, the value of Facebook, Inc. has fallen by some $50 billion. And it’s only Tuesday.
The spiralling scandal over shady data usage by Cambridge Analytica, a London-based political consulting firm that played a significant role in Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, is spooking investors. Lawmakers from the US and UK are demanding investigations of Facebook’s relationship with the consulting firm, and calling for founder Mark Zuckerberg to testify before various committees to explain himself.
On huge trading volumes—more than five times the average daily number of shares traded before the scandal broke this weekend—Facebook’s shares have lost nearly 10% over the past two days, the steepest 48-hour slide since the company’s rocky first few months after its 2012 IPO. For a company that measures its worth in the hundreds of billions, that’s a significant chunk of change.
If it’s any consolation, the permanently bullish stock analysts that follow Facebook’s stock haven’t given up on the company just yet—according to FactSet, around 90% of them still have a “buy” rating on the company. It’s also been a pretty bad week for other tech giants…
…in part due to fears that Facebook’s troubles will invite stricter regulation across the sector. None of them have had it as rough as the world’s largest social network, though, which is rapidly losing friends.