Investing in Facebook (Meta) Stock (FB)

On Aug. 19, 2021, the Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) filed a brand new antitrust lawsuit towards Meta after its unique one filed in December 2020 was thrown out in June 2021. In its revised lawsuit, the FTC alleges that Meta illegally sought to suppress competitors by buying potential rivals, together with messaging platform WhatsApp and photo-sharing app Instagram. The FTC is searching for to pressure Meta to unwind these acquisitions, and accuses Meta of utilizing its dominance in social media to stop third-party app builders from accessing its platform. Meta filed a movement on Oct. 4, 2021, to dismiss the company’s newest lawsuit, arguing that it nonetheless lacked proof of anticompetitive conduct.

On Feb. 24, 2021, the Australian authorities handed laws that successfully requires Meta’s Fb and Alphabet’s Google platforms to pay information publishers to be used of their content material on the tech giants’ platforms. The regulation forces the tech firms and information publishers to undergo binding arbitration if they can not attain a deal on phrases of cost.

The Australian court docket resolution is prompting different international locations to take comparable actions. European information publishers are lobbying the European Union (EU) to go comparable laws that may require tech giants to pay for his or her information content material at an agreed-on worth. Information publishers desire a clause that forces main tech firms enter into binding arbitration in the event that they fail to agree on phrases of cost for content material. They need the clause inserted in EU laws that was launched in December 2020. Referred to as the Digital Markets Act, the laws goals to curb the facility of large tech firms.

Whistleblower Frances Haugen was a Meta worker till Might 2021. She has supplied a stream of firm paperwork to the U.S. Securities & Trade Fee (SEC), Wall Road Journal, New York Instances, CBS “60 Minutes,” and different organizations to point out what she says are deep flaws on the large social community. That features not solely the Fb platform, but additionally Meta’s smaller platforms together with Instagram, which is closely utilized by teenagers. In her information interviews and Congressional testimony, Haugen has criticized the corporate’s concentrate on “indignant, polarizing divisive content material” as a approach to spice up engagement and income. She says the platform’s flaws are detrimental to the security of kids and democracy.

Haugen joined the corporate in June 2019 and served on the Civic Integrity group, which centered on the platform’s affect on international elections. She says she left the corporate earlier this yr as a result of she grew to become pissed off with the corporate’s lack of willingness to simply accept initiatives that may deal with the platform’s flaws and enhance the security of the platform’s customers.

In spring 2021, Haugen contacted John Tye, the founding father of authorized nonprofit group Whistleblower Help. She requested him about acquiring authorized safety and the very best plan of action for making public hundreds of pages of inner Meta paperwork. Tye agreed to signify her and Haugen filed for authorized whistleblower safety with the Securities and Trade Fee (SEC). Haugen’s identification was revealed for the primary time on Oct. 3, 2021 in an interview on 60 Minutes. Two days later she testified extensively earlier than Congress.

No, it doesn’t pay a dividend.

Meta has a twin class construction.

As of July 23, 2021, Fb had 2,383,812,263 shares of sophistication A standard inventory excellent. The inventory represents one vote per share and trades underneath the ticker “FB” on the Nasdaq World Choose Market.

As of July 23, 2021, Fb had 435,632,238 shares of sophistication B frequent inventory excellent. The category B inventory represents 10 votes per share and is owned by Zuckerberg, administration, and administrators. This provides Zuckerberg and his administration efficient management of the corporate.

Meta was based in 2004. Its 4 co-founders, Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, had been college students at Harvard College on the time.

Co-founder Mark Zuckerberg is Meta’s CEO and chairman. He based Meta with three different classmates whereas a scholar at Harvard College. He’s ranked third on the Forbes 400 record of the richest People with a internet price of $116.2 billion, as of Oct. 13, 2021.

As of June 30, 2021, Fb’s month-to-month energetic customers (MAUs) had been 2.9 billion. Meta defines an MAU as a registered and logged-in Fb consumer who visited the Fb platform or used its Messenger software inside the previous 30 days as of the date of measurement. Meta makes use of MAUs to gauge the scale of its international energetic consumer neighborhood.