Meta unfriends FB stock ticker in final farewell to the Facebook era

After a decade of trading as Facebook, the social media giant is shedding the last vestige of its old corporate avatar as it begins trading under the ticker symbol ‘META’ on Thursday.

Meta Platforms Inc rebranded from its eponymous social networking platform in October 2021, betting that the metaverse, a shared virtual realm, will succeed mobile internet.

Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s co-founder and CEO, established Facebook in 2004 from his Harvard dorm as a way for students to meet via the internet.

Little did the then 19-year-old student know that Facebook would become integral to many people’s social life, with nearly three billion monthly users, and expand to include popular social media apps Instagram and Whatsapp in its universe.