Since its inception, Mark Zuckerberg has retained full control of the company formerly known as Facebook. Though that control has been contested (we’ve all seen “The Social Network”), it cannot be undermined because the Zuckerberg and his inner circle own the controlling stock in what’s called a dual-class structure (via Business Insider). Investors can sell their Meta shares, but they can’t force Zuckerberg out.
In the past, as Meta raked in cash hand-over-fist, that arrangement has been just fine for investors. But as Zuckerberg appears hell-bent on throwing money at the metaverse until it sticks, they’re beginning to panic. In October 2022, a shareholder wrote an open letter to Zuckerberg and Meta pleading for the company to stop shoveling money into the gaping maw of the metaverse, noting that investors were losing confidence in the company.
The notion that a major, publicly traded tech giant, would deliberately crater its profitability to chase a Quixotic vision is almost unheard of. Companies such as Amazon have, in the past, employed a strategy of losing money to gain market share, but the strategy largely worked, as Amazon dominated nearly every industry it entered. Meta is a different story. Despite massive spending on the metaverse, Meta headset sales haven’t gained much steam, and it’s unlikely you’ve found yourself attending a work meeting in “Horizons.” The Meta Quest 2 may be the most popular VR set, but the majority of people still haven’t bought into VR at all, let alone on Meta’s terms, as found last year by a SlashGear poll.
Investors are right to worry. SlashGear named Meta one of the biggest tech failures of 2022 for a reason, but Zuckerberg shows no signs of slowing down his aggressive bid to dominate the future of connectivity.
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