Meta Platforms (FB); Former Facebook

[winston]

vested

Facebook’s advertising mega-machine is faltering – report

by Surin Murugiah

Vice: years of sheer mismanagement, a failure to innovate, setting money on fire on the metaverse that seemingly no one wants, a vulnerable business model that Apple is squarely taking aim at and upstart competitors like TikTok that the company seemingly has no answer for.

In a little over one year, Facebook has shed nearly US$800 billion of its market capitalisation.

Reality Labs, Facebook's metaverse fantasy team, burned through US$4.5 billion in 2019, US$6.62 billion in 2020, and US$10.19 billion in 2021 (that’s over US$21 billion).

Metaverse should be ready in 10 to 15 years.

Facebook's revenue has declined for two consecutive quarters, costs and expenses are surging, operating margin is spiraling downwards, net income has been cut substantially and so investors have abandoned ship and brought the share price down nearly 70% this year.

Source: theedgemarkets.com

https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/ ... %93-report

[behappyalways]

Meta Reportedly Readying To Fire 1000s This Week
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/meta- ... 1000s-week

[winston]

vested. Up 6.5%. Not bad.

Meta Platforms is planning to begin layoffs that will affect thousands of workers from this week, Wall Street Journal reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

The job cuts could come as early as Wednesday, the newspaper said.

The company has already told employees to cancel non-essential travel from this week, according to the report.

Chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg in September outlined plans to reorganise teams and reduce headcount for the first time, following a sharp slowdown in growth at the parent of Facebook and Instagram.

Zuckerberg said then that Meta will likely be smaller in 2023 than it was this year. The layoffs come as Meta struggles with growing losses and as it invests heavily in developing its metaverse business.

Its shares have fallen 73 per cent this year.

Comments: The layoffs come as no surprise after Zuckerberg’s frosty comments during Meta’s 3Q22 earnings call, it seemed to be merely a matter of time before the company followed other tech companies in freezing or cutting headcount.

With total expenses piling up to the tune of US$22bn last quarter – a lot of which are long term commitments, and net margins cut in half to 16%, it made sense for Meta to reduce headcount to alleviate margin pressures.

Source: Phillips

[behappyalways]

I've yet to hear from Meta about how they plan to make money on the metaverse, says NYU's Damodaran
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XhwsONWhvlU&t=25s

[winston]

not vested

Meta Platforms told employees on Friday (Nov 11) that 54 per cent of the 11,000 jobs it cut earlier this week were business roles and the rest were in technology.

Executives speaking during a during an employee townhall meeting also said the company was exiting its Portal smart display business and will wind down work on smartwatches.

Meta’s recruiting team was cut in half, they said.

The Facebook parent said on Wednesday it was slashing 13 per cent of its workforce, the first mass layoffs in the company’s 18-year history.

Following the layoffs, chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg had addressed employees, saying that revenue was much lower than he expected. “I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that,” he said.

Like its peers, Meta aggressively hired during the pandemic to meet a surge in social media usage by stuck-at-home consumers. But business has suffered this year as advertisers and consumers pull the plug on spending in the face of soaring costs and rapidly rising interest rates.

Zuckerberg said on Friday that going forward he was not planning to massively grow headcount of the Reality Labs unit responsible for its metaverse investments. Meta shares were up 1 per cent at US$113 in afternoon trading.

Source: Phillips

[winston]

not vested

Zuckerberg says WhatsApp business chat will drive sales sooner than metaverse

"Business Messaging" is probably going to be the next major pillar of our business as we work to monetize WhatsApp and Messenger.

About 20% of Meta's budget was going to Reality Labs.

Within Reality Labs, the unit was spending over half of its budget on augmented reality (AR), with smart glasses products continuing to emerge "over the next few years" and some "truly great" AR glasses later in the decade.

About 40% of Reality Labs' budget went toward virtual reality, while about 10% was spent on futuristic social platforms such as the virtual world it calls Horizon.

AR glasses need to be more useful than mobile phones, to appeal to potential customers and meet a higher bar for attractiveness.

Bosworth said he was wary of developing "industrial applications" for the devices, describing that as "niche," and wanted to stay focused on building for a broad audience.

Source: Reuters

https://www.thestar.com.my/business/bus ... -metaverse

[behappyalways]

Meta Tumbles On Report EU Targeting Firm's Ad Model
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/meta- ... s-ad-model

[behappyalways]

John Carmack Rage-Quits From Meta VR Project After Doomed Experience
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/joh ... experience

[winston]

not vested

5 reasons why Meta stock just caught a rare upgrade

by Brian Sozzi

Here are the five drivers of JPM's Meta upgrade:

1) Better cost controls by management on both total expenses and capital expenditures.

2) Lessening sales impact from Apple iOS privacy changes.

3) The company stands to compete more effectively against surging rival TikTok.

4) Reels monetization may gain steam and become "at least" neutral to sales in later 2023.

5) Valuation on the stock is "compelling" after the steep 2022 drop.

Source: Yahoo Finance

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/5-reason ... ?.tsrc=372

[winston]

Meta Earmarks Bulk Spend On Facebook, Insta And WhatsApp, Remained Steady On Metaverse Expenditure Despite Concerns

by Anusuya Lahiri

Earmarking 20% of its overall costs and expenses to Reality Labs in 2023.

Reality Labs reported a loss from operations of $(9.4) billion through the first nine months of the year.

Meta's family of apps generated $32 billion in profit during that same period.

Source: Benzinga

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/meta-ear ... 05713.html