Facebook’s Privacy Scandal Appears to Have Little Effect on Its Bottom Line ⇥ nytimes.com

Sheera Frenkel and Kevin Roose, New York Times:

The Silicon Valley company reported a 63 increase in profit and a 49 percent jump in revenue for the first quarter, driven by continued growth in its mobile advertising business. Mobile advertising now represents more than 90 percent of Facebook’s advertising revenue.

The company also said that it added 70 million monthly active users last quarter, bringing it to 2.2 billion monthly active users as of March.

The results sent Facebook’s shares up more than 7 percent in aftermarket trading on Wednesday, reflecting Wall Street’s willingness to shrug off the company’s privacy issues as long as the money keeps flowing in.

Facebook’s stock is still down compared to its pre-exposé high, but recall what I wrote a few weeks ago: I’d bet good money that Facebook’s value will return to its previous high within a year or so. Investors won’t punish the company unless users do first, in droves.