Updated at 1:42 pm EST
Meta Platforms Inc. Reportbegan trading under their new ticker symbol META Thursday in the final move of its corporate re-branding as its shifts focus from Facebook roots to an expanding digital media business.
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta Platforms, detailed the moves last October, citing a company name that was too close to a singular product, its Facebook social media page, and contending that its diverse activities, as well as its desire to develop a so-called shared virtual reality''''metaverse, required significant change.
"I hope we are seen as a metaverse business over the years," Zuckerberg said last year.
Meta will sit among all of Facebook''s current functions, including WhatsApp and Instagram, although the actual structure does not acuity.
The new ticker symbol has come to an end in more than ten years of trading as FB on the Nasdaq, where the company IPO began on May 18, 2012.
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Meta Platforms'' stock was marginally lower in early afternoon trading Thursday, indicating that it received $189.44 each, a move that would extend the stock''s year-to-date decline to 44%, putting the social media group at around $515 billion.
The fresh ticker change comes as a result of a further big event for the organization, with Sheryl Sandberg, a long-time chief operating officer, announcing her decision to quit later this year.
Sandberg, who is well known for navigating Facebook''s transition from a brand value to ad-generated revenue, served as CEO Mark Zuckerberg for fourteen years and was, in many ways, the professional face of the social media giant.
After leaving her role in the fall, she expressed interest in a move in global philanthropy.
Facebook''s fastest revenue growth in ten years over the first quarter, but saw a rebound indaily active users that had incurred a nearly $3 billion loss in its metaverse division, as well as a lower-than-expected near-term forecast.
Group revenues, according to Meta, rose 4.6 percent to $27.908 billion, about half of which came from the company''s new ''Family of Apps'' division last year, ignoring analysts'' estimates of a $28.2 billion tally. Ad revenues jumped 6.1 percent to $27 billion.
Reality Labs, the division that will manage the company''s metaverse plans, raised $695 million in revenue, but lost $2.96 billion for the quarter after a $10.2 billion loss in 2021.
Meta said it sees revenue in the current quarter of between $28 and $30 billion, again slipping behind the Street consensus of $30.5 billion.
