Facebook Stock Leaps to All-Time High 3 Months After Cambridge Analytica Data Leak

Social network is now worth more than $565 billion

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Testifies At House Hearing
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Facebook’s stock hit a new all-time high on Thursday morning, completing a Wall Street recovery that has been months in the making, after the social network has grappled with the fallout of the Cambridge Analytica data leak.

Shares of Facebook jumped nearly 2 percent in early trading to $196.05 a share, pushing past its previous high of $195.32, which the company hit on Feb. 1.

Facebook is now worth more than $565 billion.

Facebook pushes towards $200 a share (via Google)

A lot has happened since February, however. Facebook was rocked in March by the revelation that political firm Cambridge Analytica grabbed information on 50 million unwitting users back in 2014. Facebook later updated its figure to up to 87 million users that were impacted.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg became the center of attention, with users and lawmakers asking why the data was unprotected — and why the company hadn’t been more forthcoming with the leak.

“We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can’t then we don’t deserve to serve you,” Zuckerberg said in March. “We also made mistakes,” he added, saying, “There’s more to do, and we need to step up and do it.”

Facebook shareholders felt the pain, with the company’s stock dropping below $150 a share in the weeks to follow.

The 34-year-old exec was soon testifying in front of Congress, where he was grilled by representatives that at times showed a lack of basic understanding of Facebook’s business model. (Who can forget “Senator, we run ads“?)

Facebook started to recover following Zuckerberg’s trip to Washington, D.C., as the company has implemented several new measures to better protect user data. But Facebook has still run into issues in the meantime; just last week, the company revealed 14 million accounts had their posts changed from private to publicly viewable due to a bug in May. But Wall Street, looking at Facebook continuing to rake in revenue as the outrage wanes, has decide to “like” Facebook once again.

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