Several Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:FB) employees burdened with underwater stock options looked to exit the social media giant following its plunging stock prices, the New York Post reports. The stock price dived from an all-time high of over $380 in September to $216.49 on Friday.
Meta employees who had $100,000 worth of restricted stock units around its September stock peak would now have ~$57,000. So it made financial sense to quit as per Needham.
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Interestingly, opportunists from other companies like Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), which is down 10.3% this year, can theoretically "buy the dip" by taking a job at a beaten-down company like Meta and getting more stock options at a lower price.
A series of internal leaks put massive political pressure on the company fueled by the multibillion-dollar sting of privacy changes from Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google.
The Nasdaq composite index fell 12.3% in 2022, while Apple has fallen 9.9%, Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) 5.3%, and Google 5.7%.
The big tech firms are paid far higher cash compensation since the top five collectively have $345 billion of net cash.
Price Action: FB shares traded lower by 3.45% at $208.99 in the market session on the last check Monday.
photo by Tim Bennet via unsplash