Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images Facebook hasn’t been this cheap since the start of the pandemic. After plunging 14% for the week to close at $146.29, shares of Facebook parent Meta are at their lowest point since March 2020, and for a period on Friday, had sunk even lower. The Meta has lost 61% of its value over the past 12 months, by far the biggest slide among Big Tech stocks and more than double the Nasdaq Composite’s decline. After sliding for five straight days, Meta is now trading just 28 cents above its closing price on March 16, 2020, when the first days of Covid-19 sent US stocks into turmoil. If Meta falls below $146.01, it will be the lowest since January 2019. That’s when Facebook was dealing with the fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal that tested consumer confidence in the social networking company and led to a series of intense congressional hearings. However, Facebook did manage to expand its US active users that quarter, albeit by just 1 percent. Ever since it officially changed its name to Meta last October, the news about CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the company has almost all been bad. Apple’s privacy update for iOS has made it harder for the company to target ads, and the increased popularity of social media rival TikTok has drawn users and advertisers away from the app. Meanwhile, an economic slowdown has caused many companies to pull back on online marketing spending. In July, Meta said it expected a second straight period of declining sales as it reported second-quarter earnings that missed on the top and bottom lines. WATCH: I’m not sure there’s a basic Meta activity that works anymore
