[ by Melanie Gretchen and Howard Haykin ]

Simply not Possible.  Facebook Couldn't Have Pulled in $152mn. Who's playing with the numbers?

Facebook mobile has gone off the grid.  During the first half of the year, the company generated little to no revenue from advertising on mobile devices and, frankly, it didn't seem overly unconcerned.  But this was not addressed during roadshows for Facebook until several days before the anticipated IPO launch date - Friday, 5/18/12. 

During one of the last roadshows, held several days before the 5/18/12 IPO date, analysts became animated by how far behind Facebook appeared to be in developing this capability.  Institutions pulled out of the IPO, replaced by uninformed retail investors. 

Finally, Facebook shares were priced at $38 and were released for trading in the secondary market.  On day one, shares traded as high as $42 a share, though Facebook shares closed just above its initial offering price of $38 a share.  

As questions began to mount about Facebook's ability to gear up for the "mobile revolution," demand for the stock dried up and the shares went into freefall - trading as low as $15 a share, a far cry from either $38 or $42 a share.

Q3 Earnings Announced.   This week, Facebook released its results for the 3rd quarter of 2012, and to everyone's surprise - except perhaps Facebook executives - advertising revenue from mobile devices accounted for 14% of the company's total revenues.  Facebook took in $153 million for the quarter, which extrapolated to $610 million on an annualized basis. 

Of course, it's possible that advertising from mobile devices could climb again in succeeding quarters - which would reduce the relevance of Facebook's Q3 revenue figures.  All in all, it's too early to assess further performance by Facebook in future periods. 

Nevertheless, Facebook CFO David Ebersman in a conference call with analysts provided these statistics:

• Ads in the Facebook News Feed now generate $4 million per day, 75% of which come from mobile News Feed ads.
• 75% of $4 million is $3 million. $3 million per day over 365 days is…$1.1 billion.
• Given the fact that Facebook has yet to tap Instagram - the free photo-sharing program - analysts appear willing to see Facebook as having even greater potential to meet the demand and fulfill market expectations. Potential is incalculable.

For further details, go to [Business Insider, 10/23/12] .