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| Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse plans anger investors |
According to the Financial Times, major Metaverse investors have expressed anger over Mark Zuckerberg's plans for Metaverse as the company's share price continues to decline at unprecedented rates.
The company has lost more than 70% of its value since Mark Zuckerberg announced that he will change his name to Meta and focus on building the Metaverse. last week; Meta shares fell 24 percent after the earnings report, hitting their lowest levels in nearly four years after Wall Street analysts called a disastrous earnings report.
Zuckerberg said that despite all these losses, he "intends to spend more billions on the Metaverse project next year." And $15 billion has been pumped into the project this year alone.
Jim Tierney, director of US development finance at Alliance Bernstein and a Meta contributor, told the Financial Times, “If another company does this, active investors will write, provide a list of replacement managers and demand changes.” But I think Mark heard a lot carefully what investors wanted and made his decision anyway. "
Investors have expressed anger and frustration over meetings with the CEO of Meta, some of which have spoken to Zuckerberg over the past week. But Tierney said, "Meet the follow-up results made people more angry, not less."
A Meta spokesperson told the Financial Times: “We are focused on achieving our key priorities of creating long-term shareholder value, value our investors’ opinions and engage with them regularly to ensure their views are understood and theirs is understood.”
It's not uncommon for public companies to hold meetings with major shareholders after quarterly earnings reports, but Zuckerberg's tight control over the company means he has complete veto power over other shareholders over the company's future.
The Facebook founder owns 55% of the voting shares in the company, which means he can run the company as he sees fit without having to worry so much about shareholder opposition.
Meta also has a two-tiered stock structure that gives Zuckerberg, CEO, and some directors veto and veto power, as one share of them equals 10 votes, while other shareholders can only get one vote per share.
The FT's latest report comes after another investor issued an open letter ahead of the company's quarterly earnings report, which said "Meta has lost investor confidence." Brad Guest In his letter, Brad Gerstner recommended that if his Altimeter Capital fund holds hundreds of millions of dollars in Meta stock, Meta should limit its investment in the Metaverse joint venture to no more than $5 billion annually.