Meta, formerly known as Facebook, is in crisis. Its value plummeted in 2022 amid weak revenues, regulatory concerns and its big, costly metaverse bet. Its problems don't appear to be going anywhere in 2023 either.
Since Facebook officially became Meta in October 2021, the company has lost more than two-thirds of its stock market value.
Its difficulties can't all be attributed to the name change, but the "Meta era" has so far brought little but bad news for Mark Zuckerberg and his company's shareholders.
Just over a month before the rebrand, Meta, which controls the platforms Instagram and WhatsApp, hit an all-time stock market high. Just a few weeks later, the revelations of whistleblower and former Facebook employee Frances Haugen proved hugely damaging.
Haugen leaked thousands of internal company documents to The Wall Street Journal, revealing the extent to which the company had prioritized profit over dealing with hate, violence and misinformation on its platforms.
In the midst of dealing with that, Facebook became Meta with Zuckerberg selling the change as a reflection of the company's increased focus on the so-called "metaverse," a hypothetical 3D network based on virtual and augmented reality.
Throughout 2022, the problems kept piling up. The share price has been on a sharp downward spiral for 15 months now. Its revenues and ad sales are falling while regulatory scrutiny is intensifying. Then there's the massive spending on the metaverse, which investors are...
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