Meta (META) investors saw the stock gaining +3.30% the last 5 days, which means it sits at +11.73% YTD.
Let's go through the news around Meta this week together.
1. Major VR Competitor seeing Delays
2. $6 Million Fine
3. Cutting Office Space
4. What are the Rules?
5. Museum Deal
6. Centralization
LEGEND: Positive News | Neutral News | Negative News
1. Major VR Competitor seeing Delays
This is a piece of news from the competition, but it heavily ties back to Meta.
Apple is currently working on Mixed Reality (MR) and Virtual Reality (VR) glasses to compete with Meta.
Plans for the MR set is still set for launch this year, but the AR device (which is seen higher interest) looks to be getting postponed.
This is good news for Meta as they continue to sell their Quest 2, with rumors (as we covered last week) for Quest 3 scheduled for late 2023.
2. $6 Million Fine
Meta was fined nearly $6 million this week in Ireland for WhatsApp data privacy issues.
The agency issuing the fine determined that WhatsApp infringed on European privacy laws. This is not the first tech company to see a fine from the EU, and won't be the last!
$6 million is chump change for Meta, but goes to show that regulators still have their eyes closely on the business.
3. Cutting Office Space
Meta is looking to get rid of around 435,000 sq-ft of space from a high rise building they lease in San Francisco.
This office was mainly used by Instagram employees, however in an effort to adapt to a more hybrid-remote world, Meta decided to make this move.
Unlike some other tech companies which have pushed for return to office, Meta is doubling down to provide employees with a high quality remote work experience. This of course will save the company some money as well since less physical space is required.
4. What are the Rules?
Meta's oversight board is urging the company to refresh its content rules. They want to make it clear of what pictures/content is allowed, and what isn't.
Instagram took down two posts depicting nonbinary and transgender people with bare chests and this sparked the discussion around the rules.
This is creating some tension between the company and the board, which could result in bigger issues down the road - we'll keep a close eye on it!
5. Museum Deal
Meta and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science are working together.
The deal?
Meta will have naming rights for the Space Sciences wing of the museum (and planetarium) for 5 years.
In exchange, Meta will provide a $300,000 grant. The goal for this money is to help with programming education (duh - makes sense since Meta hires a TON of software engineers!).
This was a relatively small deal, but a good one for publicity sake for Meta. Helping communities bring in the next gen. folks who will lead companies like Meta one day.
6. Centralization
Meta announced changes to managing settings (passwords, personal details, etc.) in their Account Center, which will be especially helpful for those using more than 1 of their apps.
Ad settings control is also seeing some changes.
The goal?
To help people manage and understand their ads experience better. This means, having more transparency about activity sharing with companies (through ads), and the ability to have more control about what ads you see as a user (see ads that are more relevant to you).
Seemingly a minor change, but could have big impacts on results advertisers see on Meta's platform. Changes have already started going into effect so we'll see if this helps drive better ad spend in 2023 and a better user experience simultaneously.
That's it for this week.
We look forward to spending a few minutes with you next Sunday for some new Meta news!
Disclosure: I am a Meta Platforms (META) shareholder at the time of publishing.
