Meta’s value has plummeted by $700 billion. Wall Street calls it a “prepare wreck.”

Meta Platforms, parent company of Facebook, is making a huge investment in virtual reality, but its real reality looks like a real mess.

Meta shares fell 24% on Thursday to their lowest level in nearly four years after an earnings report that one Wall Street analyst described as a “train wreck.” It’s a far cry from the company’s position nearly a year ago, when CEO Mark Zuckerberg, on October 28, 2021, announced with great fanfare that Facebook was changing his name to Meta Platforms to emphasize its focus on the “metaverse”.

Last fall, Facebook was still riding high: Its market value peaked at more than $1 trillion in September 2021. Revenue and profits surged as advertisers flocked to Facebook and Instagram to reach to its billions of users.