Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc. on Wednesday forecast a weak holiday quarter and significantly higher costs next year, sending shares down nearly 20% as investors expressed skepticism about costly bets. of the company’s metaverse. The forecast wiped about $67 billion off Meta’s market value in extended trading, adding to the more than half a trillion dollars in value already lost this year.

If Meta’s after-hours drop in shares is matched in Thursday’s trading session, it will have been its deepest one-day loss since Feb. 2, when the company last issued a gloomy forecast. The disappointing outlook comes as Meta grapples with slowing global economic growth, competition from TikTok, privacy changes from Apple, concerns about massive spending in the metaverse, and the ever-present threat…