Facebook's earnings disaster has it on pace to lose $120 billion in market value — which would be the biggest wipeout in stock-market history

Facebook's earnings disaster has it on pace to lose $120 billion in market value — which would be the biggest wipeout in stock-market history
The Mark Zuckerberg-led social-media titan saw shares drop more than 19% on Thursday following a disastrous second-quarter earnings report. The damage was swift and unforgiving in after-market trading on Wednesday as Facebook plummeted as much as 24% within an hour. The selling has now spilled over into regular trading.

Investors took issue with sales and subscriber numbers that fell short of expectations. But perhaps most damaging of all, the company warned of a growth slowdown. Facebook is now headed for its biggest single-day drop since it started trading publicly in May 2012.

But that still undersells the magnitude of Facebook's earnings disaster. On a market-capitalization basis, the company is on pace for a $120 billion loss, which would be the biggest in stock-market history.