Meta Platform shares smashed as Facebook's owner misses forecast

Shares in Facebook owner Meta Platforms crashed more than 20 percent after the company announced it missed the market's Q4 earnings expectations.

The company's quarterly profits came in at US$10.3 billion, a decrease of 8 per cent. Its income from operations was US$12.5 billion, a slight dip from the year prior. 

Earnings per share came in at $US3.67 versus expectations of $3.84.

The company is also forecasting a bad Q1 in 2022. The market was looking for revenues of $30 billion but the company now expects a result between $27 and $29 billion.

Meta also did some finger wagging blaming Apple's strict privacy changes on its operating system which it said made it harder to target and measure ads on Facebook and Instagram. It also cited supply chain disruption as another reason for its disappointing results.

That didn't stop the spin from Menlo Park. According to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Meta, "We had a solid quarter as people turned to our products to stay connected and businesses continued to use our services to grow.

"I'm encouraged by the progress we made this past year in a number of important growth areas like Reels, commerce, and virtual reality, and we'll continue investing in these and other key priorities in 2022 as we work towards building the metaverse," he added. 

The company's Reality Labs division where it makes VR goggles, smart glasses and gadgets lost more than US$10 billion in 2021. According to the New York Times, the US$10 billion figure is nearly five times more than what it cost the company to buy Oculus in 2014 and ten times what it paid for Instagram nearly 10 years ago. 

Overall Meta Platform's yearly results show an increase of 37 percent in total revenue to US$118 billion and a 43 percent growth in income to $46.7 billion.