Meta shares rise 20 per cent as Mark Zuckerberg looks to pay out £500m net dividend

META PLATFORMS shares rose 20 percent in early US trading yesterday after the company revealed it will pay its first dividends in March.

The company plans quarterly payments from then on, which could mean boss Mark Zuckerberg gets £549 million a year in dividends.

Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, said the dividend would be 50 cents per share.

Zuckerberg, 39, owns about 350 million.

The company was first listed in New York in 2012.

Analyst Dan Coatsworth of AJ Bell said: “Paying a dividend suggests the company wants to reboot its reputation and be taken more seriously.”

Meta also posted strong fourth-quarter results. Turnover rose 25 percent to £31.4 billion and profits tripled to £11 billion.

It took advantage of a boom in advertising on social media platforms and cut costs by cutting about a fifth of its staff.

The workforce decreased by approximately 19,000 to 69,000.

Zuckerberg said: “2023 was our year of efficiency.”

He said the focus was on making Meta a stronger technology company as it prepared its “long-term vision for AI and the metaverse.”

He has talked about plans to develop general AI and make it open source.

Woe of the air war

DESPITE flying more passengers last month, budget airline Ryanair was forced to cancel more than 950 flights due to the conflict in Gaza.

It reported 12.2 million customers, up 3 percent from the previous year.

Shares of competitor Wizz Air rose 10 percent, while passenger numbers rose 14 percent to 4.7 million in January.

Opel sales are increasing

CAR giant Opel-Vauxhall said sales are up 15 percent in 2023 compared to the previous year.

The company said sales of fully electric vehicles increased by 22 percent.

Boss Florian Huettl said: “We can look back on a very strong year in 2023.”

The company said the Corsa remained the best-selling supermini in Britain.