New York, Feb 19, 2026, 19:05 EST — After-hours
AppLovin (APP.O) shares closed up 1.9% at about $412 on Thursday and were little changed after the bell, after a job posting on the company’s careers site pointed to a “next-generation” social platform. The listing describes a new venture and calls for a “founding Backend Engineer” to build systems for “millions of users,” without giving a launch date. (Greenhouse)
Why it matters now: AppLovin’s stock has been a trader’s market, with short sellers — investors who profit when a stock falls — again drawing attention to the name and amplifying day-to-day swings. That has made even small signals about new products and distribution feel bigger than they might in a calmer tape. (Business Insider)
Bloomberg Law reported the company is preparing to build a social networking platform after a failed bid for TikTok’s assets outside China, citing a recent Chinese-language podcast and the job listing. The report said Chief Product and Engineering Officer Giovanni Ge framed the idea as the opposite of Meta Platforms’ approach of building a network first and monetizing later. (Bloomberg Law)
The stock finished at $412.09, after trading between $396.00 and $415.44, with about 5.29 million shares changing hands, according to Investing.com. AppLovin rose 7.44% in the prior session. (Investing)
AppLovin has a history of looking at bigger consumer platforms. In an April 2025 regulatory filing, the company said it had submitted a bid for TikTok assets outside China, calling the proposal preliminary and warning there could be no assurance a transaction would proceed. (Reuters)
AppLovin sells software that helps app developers buy and sell ads, and it markets tools including AppDiscovery, MAX, Adjust, Wurl and Axon Ads Manager, according to Reuters company data. Its pitch to advertisers and publishers is that its auction, measurement and targeting tools can help reach users and track ad performance. (Reuters)
A Form 4 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday showed director Herald Y. Chen converted 150,000 Class B shares into Class A and transferred 100,000 Class A shares as a gift. (A Form 4 is used to disclose insider transactions.) (SEC)
Last week, AppLovin beat analysts’ fourth-quarter sales estimates and forecast first-quarter revenue above expectations, Reuters reported, even as it pointed to rising competition for ad dollars and an uncertain macro backdrop. (Reuters)
But the social-platform read-through carries risk. A job post is not a product launch, and building a consumer social network can burn cash and management time, especially with entrenched rivals already fighting for attention and ad budgets.
Investors will also be watching the fine print. In its annual report on Form 10-K (its yearly filing), AppLovin said it repurchased and retired 5.5 million Class A shares for $2.2 billion in 2025 and had $3.3 billion remaining under its buyback program. The filing says AppLovin’s proxy statement — the document that sets out board elections and executive pay — will be filed within 120 days of year-end, putting a late-April deadline on the next detailed look at governance as the stock trades on the next headline. (SEC)
