Meta increases in value by $100 billion, the most in a decade. (from $390 billion to more than $500 billion)

The shares of Meta increased on Thursday as a result of the firm reporting earnings that exceeded expectations, announcing a massive share buyback, and overcoming a legal challenge to its plans for the so-called metaverse.

Shares of the tech giant, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, increased by almost 24 percent, marking the company's largest daily rise in almost ten years. It is also a significant move for a business of this magnitude, increasing market value by almost $100 billion in a single day—roughly equivalent to Citigroup's whole market capitalization.

As sentiment among IT investors has improved, Meta's stock has increased more than 50% this year after finishing last year with a loss of more than 60%. Meta is one of many tech companies represented in the Nasdaq Composite index, which has increased by almost 20% this year.

Here is a recent update on Meta:

The company's results exceeded forecasts, and it also revealed a large buyback plan. Its sales in the last three months of 2017 were a little over $32 billion, which was slightly less than experts' expectations but still down 4 percent from the same period in 2016. The business also predicted that first-quarter revenues will exceed expectations on Wednesday and revealed plans to repurchase shares for $40 billion, up from $28 billion in 2017.

The new up is flat, or even slightly downward. Despite declining revenue, Meta's flagship products, including as Facebook and Instagram, maintained robust sales in the face of a challenging economic environment. This improved the company's reputation on Wall Street and, for the time being, allayed some of the more pressing worries that Meta faces impending danger from rivals like Apple, TikTok, and other social media businesses.

When necessary, Meta executives can reduce expenses. For years, Meta lavishly invested in its rapid growth, whether it took the shape of new offices, escalating personnel, or futuristic technologies without any immediate prospects for generating revenue. However, the business showed in its most recent quarter that under duress, it could find areas to cut back. On a Wednesday earnings call, Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, dubbed 2023 "the year of efficiency." This included canceling a number of office leases, revamping data centers to save money, and firing hundreds of employees who he referred to as "managers supervising managers." Wall Street praised the actions.

Facebook can still attract new users thanks to meta. The giant blue Facebook app reached a milestone of two billion daily active users for the first time last quarter, which is astonishing given how vast the site already is. It shows that despite fierce competition from other social networks, Facebook is still being used by users.

A legal challenge to its virtual reality agreement was defeated. As Meta invests substantially in the metaverse, where people work, play, and consume information using virtual and augmented reality, a federal judge on Wednesday denied the Federal Trade Commission's plea to stop the business from spending $400 million to buy a virtual reality start-up called Within. (Unhappy for Meta, European regulators found that it had improperly coerced users into accepting tailored adverts a month ago, fining the company more than $400 million and possibly forcing it to make expensive adjustments to its ad business in the European Union.)

There are still many difficulties. Due to rising interest rates and inflation, Meta is experiencing difficulties with its digital advertising. Additionally, the business is battling to keep customers who are lured to more recent apps like TikTok, a platform for short videos that Mark Zuckerberg views as one of his fiercest competitors. The billions that Meta is investing in pursuing its founder's metaverse goal might not be worthwhile.

In November, Meta let go of more than 11,000 workers. In the round of layoffs, the company slashed its employment by 13%, representing the largest job reductions since its founding in 2004. For the fourth quarter, Meta recorded a $4.2 billion restructuring charge, which included expenses for the early termination of office leases and staff severance. In 2023, the business anticipates spending an additional $1 billion on restructuring.