Facebook profits dive 51pc

FACEBOOK shares jumped 5pc last night despite warning it faces a multi-billiondollar fine due to an inquiry into the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

The company said it had put aside £2.3bn for legal costs related to a Federal Trade Commission inquiry in the first quarter – and this could reach £3.9bn. As a result, Facebook’s profit dived 51pc to £1.9bn – a larger than expected slide.

The probe centres around whether Facebook violated a 2011 agreement it signed with the FTC that required it to gain explicit consent with users before sharing their data. Facebook later shared the personal profile information of millions of its users with an outside app developer, which was later sold on to a data firm – Cambridge Analytica – that worked with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

The world’s biggest social networking site continued to grow in other areas, however. Facebook said it had 1.56bn daily active users, an 8pc increase on the same quarter of last year, while its overall revenue jumped by 26pc to £11.6bn. ÷Microsoft inched closer to a coveted $1trillion market value as it beat Wall Street estimates in its third-quarter results last night.