Investors punish Zuckerberg as costly metaverse pitch falls flat

FILE PHOTO: A 3D printed Facebook's new rebrand logo Meta is seen in front of displayed stock graph in this illustration taken on November 2, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

(Reuters) - Wall Street is losing patience over Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg's enormous and experimental bets on his metaverse project that helped drive up the company's overall costs by a fifth in the third quarter.

Investors rushed to dump Meta Platforms Inc's stock after hours, pushing it down 20% and wiping $67 billion off its market value after the company posted its fourth straight decline in quarterly profit.