Major Meta Outage Blows Mark Zuckerberg’s Net Worth

After a massive stock valuation in February, Meta’s stock price faced a major hit after the recent service outage that left millions of users out of their accounts, unable to log in or even launch the app.

March 5th was a challenging day for Meta Platforms Inc. and its owner and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth, suffering from a service disconnection across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Threads and even Meta Quest VR headsets.

This incident caused Meta’s stock price to drop noticeably, ending an uptrend run that started at the beginning of February. Let’s review the current Facebook outage and its impact on shareholders.

Meta Outage: What Happened?

On March 5th, 10:00 ET, reports circulated from all around the world about users being unable to log into their Facebook, Instagram, and Threads accounts, with the applications showing an error message while trying to sign in.

Other services, such as WhatsApp, worked with disruptions and unstable support. Millions of users reported issues on the “downdetector” website, which tracks the functionality of internet sites and services.

This caused panic waves around the world as many users thought they were hacked or that a major cyber threat had hit the network. However, a few minutes later, a representative shared a statement acknowledging the incident and mentioning that teams are working on resolving the issue as soon as possible.

Services returned back online shortly. However, users were frustrated due to the company’s insufficient explanation of the incident, referring to it as a “technical issue” without explicitly stating the reason.

Aftermath: Meta Stock Analysis

Despite the issue being resolved around one hour later, which extended in some locations, Meta’s stock price suffered severely. Naturally, this would cause stock devaluation as selling pressures increase.

After a massive growth on February 1st, attributed to tremendously positive earning reports where the company tripled its revenue and issued its first dividend payments, the stock price skyrocketed from $395 to over $480 in a couple of days, marking an over 20% stock growth.

This run continued until March, as stock prices went over the $500 threshold. However, the service outage remarkably affects shareholders, as Meta stock drops down to $488, closing at a 2.5% breakdown by the end of the trading session of March 5th.

This underperformance was soon offset as the stock recovered some of its value and went up to almost $500 the next day. However, this does not mean that the net worth of Mark Zuckerberg was not affected.

How Did it Affect Mark Zuckerberg’s Net Worth?

Meta’s founder, chairman, and CEO maintained his position as the fourth richest person in the world. However, the Meta outage lost him billions of dollars in a short period of time.

Speculations started growing about the amount of money the company lost in ads revenue during the disconnection. One prediction estimated that every offline minute costs $160,000, which means around $2,670 per second.

Reports stated that Mark lost $2.79 billion in one day, taking his net worth down to $176, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Note that the CEO holds around 350 million shares in Meta Inc. and his wealth experienced a massive boost of $27 billion after the last stock price surge.

Conclusion

The recent Meta service outage has severely affected the company’s stock valuation and Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth. However, the quick resolution of the issue might restore some investors’ confidence, which is pretty much needed after a tremendous uptrend rally in February.After an impressive earnings report, traders remain bullish on Meta stocks, minimising the impact of the last disconnection and focusing on the major AI and advanced technological developments the company is introducing.