FILE PHOTO: Woman holds smartphone with Facebook logo in front of a displayed Facebook’s new rebrand logo Meta in this illustration picture taken October 28, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
December 13, 2021
By David French and Elizabeth Culliford
(Reuters) – Meta Platforms Inc, the owner of social media network Facebook, is behind a $60 million deal to acquire the trademark assets of U.S. regional bank Meta Financial Group, spokespeople for the companies said on Monday.
The deal underscores how valuable the Meta name has become for the technology giant, which is betting that its focus on the metaverse – virtual reality spaces accessed via the internet through an array of gadgets – will pay off handsomely in the coming years.
Meta Financial had said in regulatory filing on Monday that a Delaware company called Beige Key LLC agreed to acquire the worldwide rights to its company names for $60 million in cash. It did not disclose who the owner of Beige Key was.
“Beige Key is affiliated with us and we have acquired these trademark assets,” a Meta Platforms spokesperson said. A Meta Financial spokesperson also confirmed Meta Platforms’ involvement.
Facebook said in October its parent company had changed its name to Meta Platforms.
Meta Financial’s shares were trading 1.3% lower in midday trading, giving it a market capitalization of around $1.75 billion. Meta Platforms was up 1.3%, valuing it at $929 billion.
(Reporting by David French in New York and Elizabeth Culliford in Birmingham, England; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
Source: One America News Network
