Facebook grows its revenue 42% by winning smartphones and tablets

Wall Street didn't know whether to Facebook a thumbs up or a thumbs down after the company reported a small and very rare miss on revenue expectations in the first three months of the year

Facebook posted earnings of $0.42 per share, beating the consensus estimate of $.40 a share among analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. The company fell short of what the analysts expected of its revenues — a lofty $3.56 billion —landing at $3.54 billion for the first quarter of the year.

Despite missing analyst estimates, Facebook revenue climbed more than 40% from the same quarter a year earlier, largely because of its successful transition into making money from smaller screens. Advertising revenue from smartphones and tablets accounted for 73% of Facebook's total advertising revenue for the quarter. Read more...