Meta thud at the opening of trading on Wall Street: the stock drops 23.87% to 98.83 dollars, the first time it has traded below 100 dollars since February 2016. Worrying are the halved profits, the slowed growth of the revenues, rising costs.
According to analysts, Mark Zuckerberg's "obstinacy" for the metaverse also weighs: the CEO said he will continue to invest heavily in digital "mixed reality", despite Reality Labs, his 'laboratory' on the Metaverse, has already lost $ 9.4 billion over the course of 2022.
(LaPresse)
Mark Zuckerberg
Meta, the company that controls Facebook and Instagram, saw its earnings more than halve, to $ 4.4 billion in the third quarter from $ 9.2 billion a year earlier.
To strengthen the group's efficiency, "in a difficult economic environment" "significant changes are needed," said Zuckerberg.
The social network giant, which faces stagnant user numbers and cuts in advertising budgets, also said that revenue dropped to $ 27.7 billion from $ 29 billion a year earlier.
"We are approaching 2023 with a focus on prioritization and efficiency that will help us manage the current situation and emerge as an even stronger company," assured Mark Zuckerberg.
Meta shares had already plummeted 19.1% to $ 105 in after-market trading, less than a third of what it was earlier this year.
"We are struggling with some challenging dynamics - Zuckerberg told analysts - an unstable macroeconomy, growing competition, advertising losses and rising costs from our long-term investments but the trends of our products seem better than what emerges from some comments".
(GettyImages)
Metaverse Fashion Week
Last September, Mark Zuckerberg presented a plan to reorganize the company's teams and, for the first time ever, announced the job cuts.
In the course of a communication to employees, reported by Bloomberg, the chief executive had spoken of a freeze on hiring and restructuring - with probable mergers - of some teams, to reduce expenses and realign priorities.
So, he said, Meta (the company that includes Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) "will probably be smaller in 2023," he said.
He is not known to know if cuts and downsizing also affect employees outside the United States.
Zuckerberg also added that the company will reduce budgets for most teams, even those in growing sectors, in line with what was said already in July, when he reiterated that Meta would "constantly reduce the growth of staff "and reassigned resources.
The priorities remain Reels (Meta's answer to TikTok) and the Metaverse, his most pampered "creature", on which all the cards for the future are betting and which is hard to convince economic analysts.