Meta Meets Mr. Metaverse
Come with me … and you’ll be…
In a world of pure meta imagination?
Go with Meta (Nasdaq: FB) … and you better, expect a data privacy situation!
That’s right: I bet you didn’t know Willy Wonka was talking about overindulgence in the metaverse, that always-online virtual ether.
What in the world did I tune into today?
It’s Great Stuff … naturally.
Whenever we bring up the metaverse in these here virtual pages, the reaction from your fellow Great Ones is usually mixed. Specifically, it’s a mix of 98% “umm, wtf” and 2% “huh … neat.”
But maybe — just maybe — you’re not into the metaverse as Meta envisions it.
See, the “company formerly known as Facebook” had a handful of folks hyped up about its newest virtual venture … until Meta decided to follow its usual MO and tax the ever-loving snot out of those metaverse creators.
With this week’s news of Meta’s 47.5% tax on its Horizon Worlds digital platform, it’s increasingly clear that people do not want Meta to be the metaverse warden it imagines itself as. That Meta’s ideas of an entirely open, omnipresent virtual world are anything but entirely open.
But until now, until today … Meta’s challenger had yet to appear.
Enter player two: Mr. Metaverse.
Yat Siu, aka Mr. Metaverse, is the founder of Hong Kong-based Animoca Brands. First involved in mobile gaming, Yat Siu (and his capital) then ventured into blockchain gaming and now Web3 infrastructure.
Hmm, yes, I know exactly what all that means.
Web3? That’s the blockchain-based decentralized internet stuff of dreams — techies’ dreams, I’m sure. And it’s pretty crucial for, you guessed it, the metaverse. Like a backbone, but with blockchain. That’s how anatomy works, right?
In a sense, Mr. Metaverse and Animoca Brands are trying to flesh out the very digital ecosystem in which something like the metaverse can exist.
But there’s a hitch in their meta-making giddyap. And it’s called Meta:
We are investing aggressively and broadly to facilitate the growth of the open metaverse. We’re in a bit of a hurry because we think the biggest threat isn’t regulation, but it is groups like Facebook or Tencent.
This model of an open metaverse is very much in contradiction to the way that they’ve currently constructed their business. — Yat Siu
Can I get an “Oof?” Mr. Metaverse saw Facebook’s digital circus and went straight for the juggler.
Y’all should know by now that nothing with Meta is ever truly “open.” Nor is it ever truly “free.”
If the product or service is free, you are the product. It was true in every other Facebook endeavor and it’ll be true in Meta’s metaverse — aka Facebook 2.0, the new new nexus of personal data.
Anyway, whatever it is that Yat Siu and co. are planning … the plan is to do everything that Facebook wouldn’t do. Over to Yat Siu, once more:
Equity for creators? Way to put Meta’s kryptonite front and center.
Now, in the interest of fairness, I’m getting serious “Don’t be evil” vibes here. And we all know how well that worked out for Google.
But if (and this is a big “if”) Mr. Metaverse can make his open metaverse a virtual reality … Facebook has a bona fide, seemingly consumer-conscious metaverse threat on its hands.
Either way, the point stands: Metaverse fans don’t want Meta to be the gatekeepers of the new internet age. Not for all the Zuck Bucks in the Horizon World.
Don’t know where to get started with blockchain investing — aka the literal meat that makes up these metaverse matters? We’ve got you covered.
Say A Little Prayer For Twitter
The moment I wake up, before the market puts on its makeup … I say a little prayer for newwwwwws … that doesn’t involve Elon Musk and his latest bid to take over Twitter’s (NYSE: TWTR) antisocial media might.
But that’s just not the world we live in, Great Ones.
I know we’re hitting on this topic for like, the trillionth time now … but you’ve gotta admit that Musk’s maniacal move to take Twitter private at $54.20 per share (or 43 billion buckaroos) is kind of a big deal.
The move comes three whole seconds after Musk bought 9.2% of the Twittersphere and then turned down a coveted board seat at the company.
The way Musk tells it: The $43 billion carrot he’s dangling in front of Twitter is his “best and final offer” … but I’ll believe that if/when Twitter decides it doesn’t want to tango.
In fact, it seems a refusal is already top of the Musk Man’s mind:
Them’s fighting words!
In short: If Twitter doesn’t accept Elon’s proposal, he’s gonna pull a Cartman and say: “Screw you guys! I’m going home.” With a $3.35 billion stake in Twitter … that’s akin to blackmail. I said what I said.
Flashy threats aside, what I really want to know is how exactly Elon plans to pay for his shiny new toy should Twitter bite.
I mean, sure, Elon’s worth more than $256 billion … on paper. But for Musk to move such a massive amount of cash, he’ll either have to get a loan … or sell a sizeable stake in Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA).
I already know where this is going…
Right you are, Great Ones!
Tesla is an important part of this conversation because of the Twitter-sized snowball effect that Musk’s buyout could have on the electric vehicle (EV) maker.
For starters, if Musk sells a boatload of Tesla shares to become a new social media mogul, it could convince other investors to start offloading TSLA stock. I mean, we all know how easily Elon becomes distracted … and time-sucking Twitter could become the ultimate thief of Elon’s already limited attention span.
If Musk takes a major step back from Tesla to focus on Twitter — especially when the EV company is already struggling with inflation, supply chain issues and order backlogs — it could spell disaster for TSLA investors.
Say what you want about the “occupy Mars” maniac, but there’s no denying that Tesla is more than Musk’s brainchild — it’s a literal embodiment of all things Elon.
Name another person who could theoretically drive Tesla forward the way Musk has should he take a back seat at his OG company … I’ll wait.
Once you start connecting these dots, Tesla’s tanking share price these last couple weeks starts to make a lot more sense. And while all of this is pure speculation at this point … we’ve also been down this road before once Elon sets his mind to something.
That said, should his Twitter takeover take off, TSLA shareholders should expect more pain as the market digests this latest development.
In non-Elon-related news — finally! — Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE: TSM) is feeling awfully chipper about the ongoing supply crunch that allowed it and other chipmakers to charge premium prices for their products.
Try saying that 10 times fast… Sheesh.
Tongue twisters aside, TSM reported a 36% jump in year-over-year sales in its latest earnings release that shows the world’s largest contract chipmaker — and major Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) supplier — isn’t slowing down anytime soon.
For the quarter, Taiwan earned $1.40 per share on revenue of $17.6 billion — far outpacing Wall Street’s $1.35 per-share estimate on revenue of $16.7 billion.
Even better, the chip company’s calling for Q2 revenue in the range of $17.6 billion to $18.2 billion, backed by strong demand for its chips as everything from cars to coffee makers go down the “smart device” path.
I’ll tell it to you straight: If the Great Stuff Picks Portfolio wasn’t already stacked with chipmakers like Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (Nasdaq: AMD) — two of Taiwan Semi’s biggest customers — we’d have already hopped on the TSM bandwagon by now.
That said … however many chip stocks you put into your portfolio is your business. And if you’re not done helping yourself to every tasty company in the stock market’s chip bag, TSM sure is looking like an appealing buy right now.
If Loving You Is Wrong, I Don’t Want To Be Rite Aid
Last and most definitely least, Rite Aid (NYSE: RAD) released a rather disappointing earnings outlook that had Wall Street wondering why it even tuned into the drug store’s digest.
The pharmacy stock flatlined today on bigger-than-expected losses that have become par for the course in the “post-pandemic normal” … whatever the hell that’s supposed to look like.
Over the last three months, Rite Aid reported an adjusted loss of $1.63 per share — wider than Wall Street’s loss of $0.49 per-share prediction.
Still, the drug store speculates that it can make between $23.1 billion and $23.5 billion in fiscal 2023 … and that was enough to wipe away some RAD investors’ more pessimistic poses.
Clearly, the Street’s still sorting through its feelings on Rite Aid’s future, as the stock initially popped before sinking back into a sea of red.
And Now For Something Completely Different
America’s No. 1 crypto expert — whose crypto trades have soared as high as 1,061% … 1,934% … and 18,325% all in less than a year — says: “Bitcoin’s best days are behind us. And one ‘Next Gen Coin’ is going to take center stage.”
Bitcoin? Biting the dust?
Get the full story right here.
After you’ve checked that out, how’s about letting us know your best bitcoin predictions in the inbox? We’d also love to know which side of the social media acquisition aisle you fall on … and why you’re siding with Twitter.
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Until next time, stay Great!
