In a Wall Street surprise, Facebook reported that it had posted much better than expected first quarter earnings, way beyond analysts had previously expected. It comes on the heels of a number of latest acquisitions for the social networking company and positions them for an even better year than previously forecasted.
The bulk of the revenue came largely from the company's advertising business as it maintains its position atop social networks in terms of adstreams.
The company reports that it saw $2.5 billion in sales, up nearly three-quarters from the previous year during the same reporting frame and that the $642 million in profit were three times what it had been last year at this time.
Overall, Wall Street analysts had expected the company to have fully reported earnings of 17 cents per share, but this boost gives Facebook 25 cents per share in earnings.
Ad revenue accounted for $2.27 billion.
"It's been a busy quarter and a strong one," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.
"Facebook's business is strong and growing, and this quarter was a great start to 2014," added Zuckerberg.
He added that the company "also reached new milestones as a mobile company," adding that "mobile accounted for 59 percent of our advertising revenue."
Facebook is currently the number two online advertiser behind Google, having surpassed Yahoo last year as the company continues to look for new ways to generate revenue, believing that its new effort to innovate online can achieve greater goals and profits in the months and years to come.
Optimism for the company continues to remain at an all-time high after its success on acquiring Instagram - which has seen its users increase dramatically since the takeover - and its latest purchase of WhatsApp for $19 billion and Southern California virtual reality-company Oculus for $2 billion earlier this year.
That has resulted in seeing stock prices be maintained and even increase, which was seen on April 23 after the company posted the better-than-expected news, seeing its stock rise nearly 6 percent at times in after-hours trading.
In announcing the earnings for the quarter, the company also said that current CFO David Ebersman is leaving the team after five years to return to the health care world. He will be succeeded by Facebook Vice President David Wehner.
