Zuck's Meta Ambition is Burning His Company (& Net Worth) to the Ground

That's burning with a 'B' as in the BILLIONS of dollars Meta's Reality Labs burned through in 2022. It’s safe to say that the company failed to convince the masses that it is totally worth buying expensive headsets and tuning into the Matrix "metaverse" for a jolly good time.

So how many billions did Reality Labs burn, you ask? Well………….. $13.72. That's how much.

For context, $13.72 billion in losses is a little over 10% of the revenue Meta generated during the entirety of 2022. But that's not good enough of a scale, so here's a better example: $13.72 billion is nearly 20% of Zuck's net worth of$69.1 billion as of today.

So basically, Zuck burned through one-fifth of his net worth in a single year on a failed vanity project with little to no results. Worse still, Meta is adamant that it will continue investing in the metaverse because it sees "significant long-term opportunities" in the space. But until it reaches this *magical* future, Reality Labs (which is responsible for bringing Zuck's VR dystopia heaven to life) will continue to post losses, even exceeding those booked in 2022. If this keeps up, Zuck could end up losing all his net worth in five years or less.

It's not all bad for Meta, though. The company seemed to have reversed a downward trend in its stock price following the release of its quarterly and full-year results last week, thanks to a surprise announcement of a $40 billion share buyback. Maybe now that Meta doesn't have to pay some 11,000 employees, it decided it's time to reward its shareholders instead. Lord knows they need to get richer..

Analysts alsosounded upbeat about Meta's business prospects given a slew of cost-cutting measures and use of artificial intelligence to remain competitive in the digital ad space i.e., the tech titan's bread and butter. All in all, Meta's better-than-expected financial results (minus Reality Labs, duh) seem to have bought Zuck a lifeline as he continues on his mission to conquer the virtual world.

Meta ranked #71 in this week's Tech Company Rankings. Its subsidiaries Instagram and Facebook ranked #2 and #3, respectively.

Tech Titans Say They're Making Billions But Wall Street Says It Ain't Impressed 📉

Alphabet, Apple and Amazon — each of which is valued at over a trillion dollars (with a T) — reported their earnings last week which ran into the billions, but for whatever reason, Wall Street was like.. Eh.

Apple booked nearly $30 billion in fourth-quarter 2022 profit, but all anyone could talk about was the drop in the company's revenues — the first in close to four years.

Alphabet, the owner of Google, booked $13.62 billion in profit during the closing months of 2022, but the conversation surrounding the company had again to do with a drop in its revenues.

In Amazon's case, the conversation had a lot to do with the massive drop in profit for the 2022 fourth quarter: $278 million vs. the massive $14.32 billion the company had booked in the same quarter of 2021.

Google ranked #5 this week. Apple was trending in the #35 spot, while Amazon was ranked at #58.

Tech Layoffs Continue Unabated, Now Reaching Dell 💻

Dell, one of the mainstays of the personal computers industry, said it would be letting go of 5% of its workforce, following in the footsteps of other tech companies who have been looking to become leaner since at least mid-2022.

The layoffs have nothing to do with the Austin, Texas-based company's decreasing market share despite selling laptops to literally every corporation on the planet but an overall trend in the tech space to weather a downturn in the industry in light of falling demand.

Dell's decision will impact 6,650 jobs, similar to the 6,000 job cuts its rival HP announced in late 2022.

In Other News.. 📰

• The Grammy for the Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games goes to.. Assassin's Creed Vallalalalal 😂
• You can now get a discounted version of Apple's iPhone 14 Pro.. if you're in China.
• YouTuber Logan Paul is facing a class-action lawsuit in Austin, Texas, for allegedly defrauding investors with his NFT game CryptoZoo.
• Samsung is doubling down on plans to expand production and R&D in India.
• AMD had a good quarter.

And that's a wrap! Don't forget to share this newsletter with your family and friends! See y'all next week. PEACE! ☮️

— Sheharyar Khan, Editor, Business Tech @ HackerNoon