About a year after Facebook changed its name to Meta Platforms Inc. to highlight its new focus on the metaverse, long-term shareholder Altimeter Capital Management has called on the company to rein in its spending on the bet.
Meta has lost focus and its shares are underperforming peers, Brad Gerstner, chief executive officer of the investment firm, wrote in a blog post. The firm holds 2.5 million shares representing 0.11% of outstanding stock, Bloomberg data show. Meta shares dropped 3.4% to $125.62. in New York on Monday morning. They are down 63% this year, compared with a drop of about 30% in the Nasdaq 100 Index.
The name change heralded the company’s intent to stake its future on a new computing platform where people will congregate and communicate in a virtual environment. But with revenue growth slowing it’s already had to cut costs and freeze hiring to cope with a fierce competition for users’ attention.
“Like many other companies in a zero rate world — Meta has drifted into the land of excess — too many people, too many ideas, too little urgency,” he wrote. “Meta needs to get its mojo back.”
To double free cash flow to $40 billion a year the company must reduce headcount expense by at least 20%, cut annual capex by at least $5 billion, to $25 billion, and limit investment in the metaverse and Reality Labs to no more than $5 billion a year, Gerstner wrote.
The firm’s recommendations “will lead to a leaner, more productive, and more focused company — a company that regains its confidence and momentum,” he said. “We believe in this team.”
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