Facebook is preparing a billion provision on the consequences of the recent privacy scandals.

In connection with corresponding investigations of the U.S. trade authority, the FTC Facebook put aside in the last quarter of three billion dollars, as the Online network announced after the US market close on Wednesday. The company expect overall, with a load of between three and five billion dollars. The investigations of the FTC may, for example, with a penalty or with a comparison.

Facebook has cash reserves of over 45 billion dollars. The provision expressed at the same time, the profit for the last quarter to 2.43 billion dollars to nearly five billion a year earlier. Sales rose in the year-on-year by 26 percent to over 15 billion dollars.

The number of monthly active users grew within a period of three months 2.32 to 2.38 billion.

investors were satisfied: The share price rose in after-hours trading, at times by more than four percent.

dpa