Market Overview

30-Year Old Adds $2 Billion to Facebook's Market Cap

Shares of Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) rallied nearly 7% on Friday, boosting the social network's market cap by over $2 billion.

Since its IPO, Facebook's stock has fallen dramatically. Although the company has an enormous base of users, many have come to doubt that it could successfully monetize its business model -- particularly as more users opt to access the site on mobile devices.

On Thursday, Facebook unveiled a gift-giving feature that would allow users to send their friends gifts through the website. That may have prompted buying, as investors came to see the announcement as giving Facebook a new avenue for revenue generation.

The basis of that gift-giving service was a company called Karma, which was acquired by Facebook earlier this year. Karma was launched for mobile devices in February.

Karma's founder, Lee Linden, is only 30 years old. Facebook paid about $60 million in stock for Karma back in May. Given the $2 billion boost on Friday, that seems like a bargain.

Tags: Karma, Lee Linden

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