• Meta Platforms Inc has made a $60 million deal to acquire the trademark assets of U.S. regional bank Meta Financial Group according to recent reports.
  • Since Facebook changed to Meta Platforms, the company has doubled its efforts to get involved in the space in competition with other major players such as Microsoft and Gemini.

 

The name Meta/Metaverse has been associated with some of the largest tech firms in the world. Facebook went one step further by rebranding its parent company to Meta Platforms Inc back in October. Experts are predicting that virtual reality and augmented reality is the next big thing in tech and Facebook wants to dominate the space.

In its quest, the California based tech firm is going after everything Meta. According to a spokesperson from the company, Meta Platforms Inc is behind the acquisition of the trademark assets of U.S. regional bank Meta Financial Group. The deal reportedly cost the tech firm around $60 million.

Meta Financial said in a regulatory filing on Monday that a Delaware company called Beige Key LLC had acquired the worldwide rights to its company names. A Meta Platforms spokesperson has since confirmed that Beige Key is associated with the tech firm and it has hence acquired these trademark assets. The purchase illustrates how much Zuckerberg the founder of Facebook is placing on the new venture.

On top of going after associated companies, the tech firm has been accused of blocking accounts associated with Metaverse. Its photo and video sharing social networking service Instagram last week blocked the account of Australian technologist and artist Thea-Mai Baumann who was using the handle @metaverse. The platform accused her of ‘pretending to be someone else’ despite holding the account since 2012. Rightfully, the tech firm has since apologised for what it deemed as an error.

Meta Platform is not the only large organisation betting big on metaverse, as CNF reported. Bill Gates has recently predicted that in the next three years, a majority of office meetings will be held in the metaverse. The 66-year old who founded Microsoft says virtual meetings will improve from 2D camera image grids. Predictably, Microsoft has recently launched Microsoft Metaverses’ a product that allows organizations to create “metaverses” where teams can collaborate in virtual spaces.

Other relatively smaller organisations such as the Winklevoss twins’ Gemini are also striving to play a part in building the new tech space. With backing from capital management giants like Morgan Creek Digital, Gemini aims to raise $400 million to battle their old rival, Mark Zuckerberg.

Read More: Gemini looks to secure $400M in funding, set to battle Facebook on Metaverse

Other tech firms will struggle to keep up with Meta Platform (Facebook) given its current financial value, influence and its user base across its many platforms. However, Facebook has a stained reputation for mishandling users data making room for other platforms to take a share of the market.