Facebook's 1st-Quarter Profit Falls 12% Facebook's profit fell 12 percent in the first three months of the year, owing to a broad rise in expenses, the company disclosed in its latest amended prospectus. Still, the company's quarterly revenue exceeded $1 billion for the second quarter in a row. Facebook also confirmed details of its $1 billion purchase of the photo-sharing company Instagram, including the consideration of 23 million shares and $300 million in cash. The transaction also carries a $200 million breakup fee. While impressive at a glance, Facebook's top- and bottom-line financial figures dipped from the previous quarter. The company attributed the drop to traditionally strong advertising revenue collection toward the end of a given year. At the same time, its expenses across a spectrum of areas, including the money spent on new products and stock-based compensation, rose significantly during the quarter. Marketing costs more than doubled, to $159 million, while research and development nearly tripled, to $153 million. For the first three months of 2011, Facebook earned $205 million, or about 9 cents a share on a diluted basis. Its revenue amounted to about $1.06 billion. The company was quick to highlight its still-burgeoning business, as it gets closer to finally trading on the public stock markets. The number of its daily active users, an important measure of engagement, leaped 41 percent to 526 million. And its monthly active user base rose by a third, to 901 million. Moreover, about 488 million of those users access Facebook through the company's mobile apps.