When Will Facebook Officially Become Meta on the Stock Market?

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg surprised some people with his announcement on Oct. 28 that the social-media company he has built since 2004 will be rebranding. After all, the company has faced plenty of regulatory investigation, lawsuits, and criticisms like those of the Facebook whistleblower. Now, the company is focused on its name change to Meta.

Although most people know Facebook for its social media, Zuckerberg has said that the social media platform is only a small part of what the company actually represents. Facebook has already started to invest more money and employees in the development of the “metaverse” and branding itself as a social technology company.

Investors will want to know what happens to their Facebook stock now that the company is rebranding to Meta Platforms, Inc. The company’s change to its new stock symbol isn’t official yet and is expected to take effect on Dec. 1.

As of that date, Facebook stock will change from “FB” to the new symbol “MVRS.” Facebook’s new stock symbol isn’t “META” like you might expect!

The name change was official as of Oct. 28. Zuckerberg announced the new company name at the virtual Connect conference. When buying Facebook stock, the symbol is still "FB" but Meta Platforms Inc. is displayed as the company name. It won’t be until Dec. 1 that the ticker symbol will reflect the change.

Many of Facebook's products will also undergo a name change. The Verge reported that the Oculus Quest headset will become Meta Quest, and the Oculus App will become the Meta Quest App.

The metaverse, which has largely inspired the Facebook rebranding, is often described as a new digital world—one that will impact our daily lives in irrevocable ways. Zuckerberg wrote in a founder’s letter about a future “embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it. We call this the metaverse, and it will touch every product we build.”

Meanwhile, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said, “When we talk about the metaverse, we’re describing both a new platform and a new application type, similar to how we talked about the web and websites in the early ’90s."

People can invest in the metaverse by buying stock in FB (soon to be MVRS) as well as in companies that make VR or AR technology. The Roundhill Ball Metaverse ETF is also a way to gain broad metaverse exposure.

Facebook has already hired thousands of workers for its augmented and virtual reality divisions. It purchased Oculus VR in 2014 in order to start increasing its virtual reality offerings. Recently, the company announced its intention to hire 10,000 additional staff members in Europe to develop the metaverse.

Although Zuckerberg wrote in his founder’s note that he envisions a future in which we interact virtually in a more integrated way, often as “holograms,” he said that it isn't about spending more time on screens but about improving the time we spend in virtual environments.

The CEO also expressed the hope that within 10 years, the metaverse will “reach a billion people, host hundreds of billions of dollars of digital commerce, and support jobs for millions of creators and developers.” Part of Meta’s revenue is expected to come from sales of its Oculus VR headsets and eventually augmented-reality devices.