Apparently, the key to economic success was to make Australia mad. Who would have thought? At least, it worked for social media giant Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), as it offered up a new plan to stop paying for news content. That’s prompting some new outrage, but investors didn’t have much problem as Meta was up better than 2% in Friday afternoon’s trading.
The plan calls for Meta to no longer pay news publishers for content that shows up on Facebook. Several Australian publishers and news agencies have fought against Facebook’s practices in the past, claiming that they “unfairly benefit in terms of advertising revenue.”
Meta, in turn, made the decision to pull back on news and political content altogether, a move that has reduced news links to a bare “fraction” of most users’ feeds. Meta’s plan was called “selfish” by the former chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Rod Sims, who also declared, “…this is Meta thumbing its nose at the Australian government.”
Going It Alone
That’s not the only move Meta made away from partnership efforts. Reports noted that Meta also thumbed its nose at Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) over the matter of virtual reality headsets. While Meta is known for the Meta Quest line of headsets, Google wanted to get in on that and work to create an even better line. However, Meta passed on the plan. That’s particularly unusual given that Meta already turns to Google’s Android for an operating system.
What Is the Prediction for Boeing Stock?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on META stock based on 40 Buys, two Holds, and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 186.82% rally in its share price over the past year, the average META price target of $528.80 per share implies 5.28% upside potential.
