Facebook Parent Meta Begins Trading Under Ticker META, Drops FB Symbol

Facebook owner Meta shares have fallen nearly 42% this year amid criticism over its market power, algorithmic decisions.

By Reuters | Updated: 10 June 2022 12:20 IST

Facebook Parent Meta Begins Trading Under Ticker META, Drops FB Symbol

Facebook changed its name to Meta in October last year

Highlights

Mark Zuckerberg established Facebook in 2004
The company focuses on building the metaverse
The company started trading under the ticker symbol META on Thursday

After a decade of trading as Facebook, the social media giant is shedding the last vestige of its old corporate avatar as it begins trading under the ticker symbol META on Thursday.

Meta Platforms rebranded from its eponymous social networking platform in October 2021, betting that the metaverse, a shared virtual realm, will succeed mobile Internet.

Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's co-founder and CEO, established Facebook in 2004 from his Harvard dorm as a way for students to meet via the Internet.

Samsung Wins Patent for a Tri-Fold Smartphone With Specialised Barrier Layer for Improved Durability

Little did the then 19-year-old student know that Facebook would become integral to many people's social life, with nearly three billion monthly users, and expand to include popular social media apps Instagram and Whatsapp in its universe.

Nearly two decades on, his company is pouring billions of dollars into the metaverse, a futuristic idea of virtual environments where users can work, socialize and play, by adding new features to hardware devices that serve as access points.

"Companies that change their official name and ticker are usually trying to signal that there has been a fundamental change in the underlying business model," Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities in New York, said.

Meta Extends 3D Avatars to Instagram in India, Facebook Gets Improved Avatars

"I'm not sure if it really makes much of a big difference. I still call them Google and Facebook," Hogan added.

Meta shares have fallen nearly 42 percent this year as it battles criticism from lawmakers and regulators over its market power, algorithmic decisions and its policing of abuses.

Missed Apple's WWDC 2022? We discuss every major announcement on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.