New York (EFE)
Despite the bad figures, published at the close of the session on Wall Street, the technology shot up 18% in electronic operations in a first good reaction from investors, who had worse expectations, especially for the fourth quarter.
Meta, which had previously warned of weak accumulated results, had a slight decrease in annual turnover, of 1%, to 116,609 million, but was weighed down by a significant increase in costs, of 23%, to 87,665 million.
Restructuring
The company announced 11,000 layoffs in November and a charge of 4,610 million has been recorded in the year, related to these “restructuring efforts”, which also include the cancellation of office and project leases.
Like other technology companies, it was affected by inflation, the weakness of the advertising market, the increase in competitors and the normalization of the demand for digital entertainment, which increased extraordinarily after the outbreak of the pandemic.
Between October and December, the company earned 4,652 million (55% less) and billed 32,165 million (4% less), representing the third consecutive quarter with a decline in revenue, largely dependent on advertising.
Regarding advertising, Meta noted that “impressions” (user views) increased across its suite of apps, but the average price per ad fell 22% in the last quarter and 16% for the year.
After suffering a collapse on the stock market last year, with a capitalization cut of 64%, Meta announced a share repurchase plan of 40,000 million dollars, well above what was invested in that concept in 2022.
Meta continues to attract with its social networks
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO, noted that applications under the Meta umbrella continue to attract users, driven in large part by its artificial intelligence technology and the “Reels” function, to make short videos.
He further noted that Facebook has reached the milestone of 2 billion active users on average in December, up 4% year-on-year.
Zuckerberg dubbed this year the “year of efficiency” and said his priority is to make the company “stronger and leaner,” warning in his guidance for this year that it could “incur additional restructuring charges.”
Meta said it expects revenue for the first quarter between 26,000 and 28,500 million, which could mean a return to growth, and for the year as a whole it has revised downward its previous expectations for costs and capital expenditures, which seems to have encouraged to the market.
