Meta, formerly Facebook, faces historic drop as stock tanks
New York, Feb 3: Shares in Facebook parent company Meta are in the midst of their worst day ever Thursday after the social media giant reported a rare decline in profit due to a sharp increase in expenses as it invests heavily in its transformation into a virtual reality-based company.
Meta's shares fell more than 23% to 246.76 in early trading Thursday, lopping off more than 215 billion of the company's overall value, known as its market capitalisation. A drop that big would be the largest ever for a company on a single day. Facebook's market cap dropped 120 billion on July 26, 2018.
The Menlo Park, California, based company said Wednesday that profit declined 8% to 10.29 billion in the final three months of 2021. Revenue rose to 20% to 33.67 billion.
The decline could partly be tied to Meta's spending on its Reality Labs segment which includes its virtual reality headsets and augmented reality technology. Meta invested more than 10 billion in the segment in 2021.
In addition, recent privacy changes by Apple make it harder for companies like Meta to track people for advertising purposes, which also puts pressure on the company's revenue.
On a conference call with analysts Wednesday, Meta's chief financial officer said the company faces a 10 billion headwind from Apple's changes in 2022. Analysts at MoffettNathanson, in a note to clients, called the estimate stunning.
Meta also forecast revenue well below analysts' expectations for the current quarter, due in part to growing competition from TikTok, the company said.
Meta Platforms Inc took on its new name last fall to emphasize CEO Mark Zuckerberg's focus on the metaverse. Since then, the company has been shifting resources and hiring engineers including from competitors like Apple and Google who can help realise his vision. It expanded its workforce by 23%, ending the year with 71,970 employees, mostly in technical roles.
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Minor girl kidnapped and raped; main accused and two cafe owners held
Latur (PTI): A minor girl was allegedly kidnapped and raped by an 18-year-old man in Latur, leading to the arrest of the main accused and owners of two cafes where the crime occurred on December 4, police said on Saturday.
Police traced the girl within hours of registering the complaint. The accused, identified as Rihan Gulab Shaikh, was arrested based on the girl's complaint. Two others are owners of two cafes where the crime occurred, police said.
Police registered a case under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), POCSO Act, and the Prevention of Atrocities Act, an official said.
