#SocialStocks: Court of Appeals rules Meta cannot delay FTC probe reopening

Welcome to “#SocialStocks,” The Fly’s weekly recap of Wall Street’s reactions to social media stock news.

TELEGRAM: Cross-platform messaging app Telegram is looking to challenge Meta Platform’s (META) WhatsApp and Messenger amid an expansion of its features for business, “as well as support for ad-revenue sharing,” reported TechCrunch’s Sarah Perez. According to TechCrunch, the company officially launched this past weekend and will now allow users to “to set business hours and use preset replies, greeting and away messages, chatbots, tags for chats.” Other companies in the space include Microsoft (MSFT)

WEDDING SEASON PACT: Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), celebrated its new “A&F Wedding Shop” collection and rang in wedding season with an immersive and experiential event on March 27. Partnering with Pinterest (PINS) to bring the latest wedding trends to life, Abercrombie transformed the grounds and rooms of Los Angeles’ famed Goldwyn House to highlight pieces from the brand’s 100+ piece collection. “The A&F Wedding Shop is designed to outfit our customers for every moment of the multi-faceted wedding experience,” said Megan Brophy, Abercrombie & Fitch Co.’s VP of Brand & Experience Marketing. “Nobody plans a wedding without Pinterest, so it was only natural to partner with them to bring the modern wedding story to life.”

WITHOUT FURTHER DELAY: Meta cannot delay the U.S. Federal Trade Commission from reopening a probe into alleged privacy failures by its Facebook unit while the company pursues a lawsuit challenging the agency’s authority, a U.S. court ruled Friday, Reuters’ Mike Scarcella and David Shepardson noted. The Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in its order found that Meta had not shown its challenge was likely to be successful. The court said Meta has “not met its heavy burden of showing entitlement to an injunction pending appeal.”

INSIDER SALE: In a regulatory filing, Pinterest disclosed that its CFO Julia Brau Donnelly sold 30.2K shares of common stock on March 27th in a total transaction size of $1.07M.

EDUCATION FIRST: The Toronto District School Board announced a lawsuit against Meta Platforms, Snap (SNAP) and TikTok patent ByteDance “for disruption to the education system.” The school board alleges “these companies have negligently designed and marketed addictive products that have disrupted our Board’s mandate to enhance student achievement and well-being.” The litigation calls on social media giants “to make their products safer, to compensate our Board for its disruption to our mandate and our students’ fundamental right to education.” The School Board is seeking a total of $3.3B in damages, according to the lawsuit it filed.

IF YOU CAN’T BEAT EM: LinkedIn is among the latest ‘popular’ apps implementing short-form video feeds after TikTok’s success, wrote TechCrunch’s Aisha Malik. Microsoft (MSFT)-owned LinkedIn joins Instagram, YouTube (GOOG), Snapchat and Netflix (NFLX) in a move to the format. LinkedIn confirmed to TechCrunch on Wednesday that “videos are becoming one of its users’ desired formats for learning from professionals and experts, which is why it’s testing a new way for users to discover relevant videos,” adding that the feature is “in early testing.”

ANALYST COMMENTARY: Wells Fargo lowered the firm’s price target on Meta to $600 from $609 and reiterated an Overweight rating on the shares ahead of the company’s Q1 report. Advertising checks suggest continued strong growth, says the firm, which raised Meta’s ad growth estimate for Q1 and expects solid Q2 guidance. Wells expects Q2 to the best the last period of materially above-trend growth at Meta and sees its second half of the year ad growth tracking more closely with industry trends.