Facebook just turned 20
Facebook is no longer a teen!
The company completes its 20 laps around the sun today.
What started as a website in Mark Zuckerberg's dorm room has today morphed into Meta, a conglomerate with the parentage of Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Threads.
Surprises started coming in before the clock rang 12!
On February 2nd, Meta's stock soared by 20%, reaching a record $474.99 and boosting the company's valuation by $197 billion to a whopping $1.22 trillion—the largest single-day market value gain in US history, as reported by Bloomberg.
This surge was fueled by Meta's stellar Q4 earnings report, which revealed a tripling of profits compared to the previous year and the fastest revenue growth since 2021.
The announcement of a 50-cents-per-share quarterly dividend and a $50 billion share buyback further buoyed investor confidence, signaling Meta's evolution into a mature business.
Mark Zuckerberg, with approximately 350 million shares in Meta, saw a notable uptick in his net worth, adding $28.1 billion in a single day and anticipating an annual dividend gain of around $700 million.
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However, the company has been on both sides of the proverbial line.
Two years ago, the company faced a significant downturn, witnessing the largest single-day stock market crash in history.
Strategic changes were implemented, marked by the "year of efficiency" in 2023.
Meta doubled its operating margin, streamlined operations, and underwent a 22% workforce reduction, leading to a remarkable turnaround.
Looking ahead, investors are keenly interested in Meta's GPT-4 competitor, LLaMA.
Despite the losses in the metaverse/VR division, which amounted to $16.1 billion last year, Meta's current success suggests that investors may support Zuckerberg's efforts in this space, especially with potential competition from Apple's Vision Pro on the horizon.
The party is still going on, and with visitors dropping in and lips running loose, we are eavesdropping on the world's leading news sources to learn more about Zuckerberg's plans for Meta.
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