Facebook now world's fourth most valuable company

By Ovunc Kutlu

NEW YORK (AA) - Facebook surpassed Amazon in market capitalization Friday to become the world's fourth most valuable company.

Shares of the social media giant rose 0.7 percent to $171.58 at 10 a.m. EST (1400GMT), giving the company a market capitalization of $497 billion.

Amazon stock, however, fell 3.5 percent to $1,008.80, putting the company's market value at $482 billion.

The sharp decline comes after the online retailer reported late Thursday a net income fell 77 percent during the second quarter.

The decline in value cost its founder and CEO Jeff Bezos his top spot on Forbes’ world’s richest person list -- a title he enjoyed for only 8 hours Thursday.

Bezos remains in second place on the list Friday with a net worth of $85.9 billion, according to Forbes’ real time tracking. Bill Gates is in the top spot at $89.7 billion as of 11.20 EST (1325GMT).

Facebook cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was fifth on the list with a mere $71.5 billion.

At 33, Zuckerberg is also the world’s youngest billionaire.