Meta profit triples in Q4

Washington: Meta Platforms Inc. tripled its profit and posted sharply higher revenue in the final quarter of 2023, boosted by a rebound in digital advertising as well cost cutting and layoffs in what CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the “year of efficiency.” “The company can talk all it wants to about AI and the metaverse, but it’s still a social media company that gets nearly all its revenue from advertising, and advertisers still clearly love Meta,” said longtime tech analyst Debra Aho Williamson. The Menlo Park, California-based parent company of Facebook and Instagram said Thursday that it earned $14 billion, or $5.33 per share, in the October-December period. That’s up from $4.65 billion, or $1.76 per share, a year earlier. Revenue grew 25 per cent to $40.11 billion from $32.17 billion. Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $4.82 per share on revenue $39.1 billion, according to FactSet Research.