Editor’s Note: Related tickers: Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Facebook Data Breach Affects 6 Million Users (SDB)
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has disclosed that 6 million of its users’ phone numbers and email addresses have been exposed to unauthorized users during the last year. According to Reuters, the company blames the leaks on a technical glitch that began in 2012 in its archive of information for its 1.1 billion users. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) reports that the bug was fixed within 24 hours of its technical team receiving notified about it. The company told Reuters that it notified affected users and regulators about the breach prior to making a public announcement.
Facebook’s Valuation Is Still Too Optimistic (BusinessInsider)
Is Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) an attractive shorting opportunity at current levels? We think the answer is yes, and here’s why. The stock trades with a premium valuation despite major growth challenges, and the social media industry is becoming fragmented as competition picks up. Shares of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) are currently priced for the best possible scenario. Despite trading at more than a 35% discount to its IPO price, Facebook is still valued at roughly 42 times earnings estimates for this year. This, despite the fact that earnings are only expected to grow by 7.5% in 2013.
Facebook Hashtags Make Their Way to Mobile (PCMag)
It was a pretty big deal when Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) earlier this month made hashtags clickable on the Web. Now, the social network has extended hashtags to mobile devices as well. A Facebook spokeswoman confirmed to PCMag that the company on Thursday began rolling out hashtag support for its HTML5 mobile site m.facebook.com. At this point, however, hashtags are still non-functional on Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s iOS and Android apps. Facebook first introduced hashtags two weeks ago, but only on its main site on the Web. Hashtags — one or more words strung together with no spaces behind a pound sign — gained in popularity in 2009, when Twitter began hyperlinking them to search results. They are often used to clarify or add context to a post, and in recent years have extended beyond Twitter to services like Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)+ and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO)‘s Flickr.
Facebook to Shield Ads From Offensive Content (NYTimes)
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) said on Friday that it would remove ads from pages that contain controversial content, as it tries to protect advertisers from appearing next to offensive material beyond their control. In a message posted on its Web site, the company wrote: “Our goal is to both preserve the freedoms of sharing on Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) but also protect people and brands from certain types of content.” “We know that marketers work hard to promote their brands, and we take their objectives seriously. While we already have rigorous review and removal policies for content against our terms, we recognize we need to do more to prevent situations where ads are displayed alongside controversial Pages and Groups. So we are taking action.”
Former Facebook Exchange Product Director Joins Nanigans (Virtual-Strategy)
Nanigans, Inc., developer of the predictive lifetime value SaaS platform for performance marketing at scale, has appointed Antonio Garcia-Martinez as advisor. Antonio joins Nanigans after a strong year of growth, with the company growing revenues 2.5X, serving 200 enterprise customers, and operating four offices worldwide. Antonio comes to Nanigans after more than two years developing Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) advertising technologies. Antonio is a former ad targeting product manager at Facebook, most recently spearheading and directing Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s real-time bidding exchange, Facebook Exchange (FBX), from inception through launch and scaling.
