Happy birthday to Facebook, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary a week after unveiling record profits. Newly published full annual accounts show Facebook generated $4.26 billion (£2.6 billion) in overseas sales last year but paid just $68 million in foreign corporation tax — because it said it made no profit internationally.
Yet on its US home turf, it paid more than $1 billion in tax on profits from $3.6bn in sales. That follows publication of the most recent British accounts last year, which showed Facebook paid zero UK corporation tax by processing its sales in Ireland. Tonight, rival Twitter reports its maiden results as a public company. Its investor relations team has asked people to tweet questions in real time.
* Tomorrow sees the launch of Porter, a women’s glossy magazine produced by upmarket fashion retailer Net A Porter and edited by ex-Harper’s Bazaar editor Lucy Yeomans. There will be a near-simultaneous launch in London in the morning and New York the next day. Vogue, Harpers, et al. are watching anxiously.
* The Times suffered a rare lapse in its coverage of BT’s results when a headline claimed football fans were switching off from rival BSkyB. Sky has forced The Times to publish an apology, pointing out it enjoyed its “best growth in TV subscriptions for seven quarters”. It’s a sensitive issue as The Times and Sky share a leading shareholder in Rupert Murdoch — something Mike Darcey, pictured, boss of Times publisher News UK, knows as he used to work at Sky.
* The Advertising Association hosted its third annual conference, Lead 2014, at Kings Place last week but there was not a drop of alcohol at lunch. Ad revenues may be on the rise again, but the Mad Men days of Martinis are over.
