Washington D.C. (Business News Report)|| Thursday was a black day for Meta, as it lost $29 billion in a record drop in its stock.
Shares of Meta Platvo fell to a record level at a time when the company, Meta, expected to record disappointing profits.
Meta stock fell 26%, wiping out more than $200 billion in the largest-ever cut from the market value of an American company in a single day.
This reduced the net worth of its founder and CEO Zuckerberg to $85 billion, according to Forbes magazine.
Zuckerberg owns about 12.8% of the technology giant, formerly known as Facebook.
The decline in Zuckerberg’s wealth during Thursday’s trading is one of the largest declines ever.
Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk suffered a lost amounting to $35 billion, in one day in November.
After that loss, Musk, the richest person in the world, conducted a poll of Twitter users if he should sell 10% of his stake in the electric car maker.
Tesla shares have yet to recover from the resulting sell-off.
At least 21 brokerage firms cut their price targets for Meta stock after the company published a weaker-than-expected outlook on Wednesday. The company blamed Apple for changing its privacy rules as well as increased competition from other rivals including TikTok and YouTube.
After wiping out $29 billion from his fortune, Zuckerberg ranked 12th on Forbes’ list of billionaires, behind Indian business magnates Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani.
It is certain that trading in technology stocks will remain volatile in light of rising inflation and an expected rise in interest rates. Meta’s shares could recover sharply sooner rather than later, with the decline in Zuckerberg’s fortune remaining on paper.
Zuckerberg sold $4.47 billion of Meta shares last year, before technology shares lost ground in 2021.
At the end of last year, Facebook changed its name to Meta, and revealed its interest in the virtual world.
