A shareholder Brad Gerstner’s open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO Meta has tagged the huge investment into the Metaverse as super-sized and terrifying. The shareholder who is the founder and CEO of technology investment firm Altimeter Capital, owns about 0.11% share in Meta, according to Hedge Follow, has urged the company to scale down its investment in the Metaverse and its related technology arm because of the significant fall in its stock price over the last 1 year and 6 months.
Takeaway Points
- Meta stocks falls 55% compared to an average of 19% for its peer
- Shareholder urges Meta to scale down its investment in the Metaverse
- Meta could leverage on AI to drive more economic productivity than the internet itself.
Zuckerberg’s Metaverse Investment
The open letter which was published on October 24, was directed to Zuckerberg and the board of directors. Gerstner said that Meta should not command as much investment from the company as it currently does. He said that the company has announced investments of over $10 billion per year into its Metaverse project alongside AR/VR tech and Horizon World, but “may take 10years to yield result”. He further explained:
An estimate of $100B + investment in an unknown future is super-sized and terrifying even by Silicon Valley Standard
He further urged that “While most companies will struggle to monetize AI, we believe Meta is incredibly well positioned to leverage artificial intelligence to make all of its existing products better” hence, the company should focus more on AI as it has the potential to drive more economic productivity than the internet itself.
Gerstner added that over the last 18months, Meta’s stock has fallen 55% compared to an average of 19% for its “big-tech peers” which he suggests “mirrors the lost confidence in the company, not just the bad mood of the market”.
Zukerberg’s Metaverse
Meta is to report its 2022 third-quarter results on 26the October. However, the share price for Meta Platforms Inc has plummeted 60.53% over the last year to $129.72 presently.
