Meta mayhem

Shares of the newly formed Facebook parent Meta Platforms tumbled more than 20 percent in after-hours trading Wednesday after the company released its latest earnings and projections.

Meta’s shares dropped from around $323 per share to $252. The company, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, predicted that first-quarter revenue in 2022 will be between $27 and $29 billion, below the $30 billion anticipated by Wall Street.

Meta attributed the lower estimate to a combination of factors including privacy changes to Apple’s iOS and supply chain issues.

Facebook’s user growth slowed last quarter, with daily active users dropping from 1.93 to 1.92 billion. Most of that drop came from Africa and Latin America, a potentially worrying sign given that the social media’s growth has been stagnant in North America and Europe for some time.