StockTok: eBay buyers can now browse directly on Facebook Marketplace

Welcome to “StockTok,” The Fly’s weekly recap of Wall Street’s reactions to social media stock news.

ANTITRUST LATEST: eBay (EBAY) said earlier in a blog post: “Starting today, we’re thrilled to announce that we’re adding Facebook Marketplace (META) to the growing roster of channels where your listings can be found. This week kicks off our collaboration, with a pilot of select eBay listings appearing on Facebook Marketplace in the U.S., Germany, and France. There’s no action required on your part. Simply keep listing on eBay as usual to enjoy the benefits of broader visibility and the chance to reach a new audience of buyers through Facebook Marketplace. The entire process, from product inquiries to payments, will continue to be securely handled through eBay. That means your transactions, order details, and seller protections will all remain unchanged.” Shares of eBay were up 9%, or $5.91, to $69.08 in afternoon trading. Meta made the partnership in an effort to comply with an order from the European Commission that claims Facebook Marketplace has hindered competition for online marketplaces in Europe. Meta Platforms said in a blog post: “While we disagree with and continue to appeal the European Commission’s decision on Facebook Marketplace, we are working quickly and constructively to build a solution which addresses the points raised. Today, we will launch a test in Germany, France, and the US that will enable buyers to browse listings from eBay directly on Facebook Marketplace while completing their transaction on eBay. This could benefit people using both platforms. eBay sellers will gain exposure to Facebook’s audience while people using Marketplace will be able to discover a broader array of listings from the eBay community.” Citi reiterated a Buy rating on eBay with a $75 price target after the company announced a partnership with Meta integrating eBay listings on Facebook Marketplace. While eBay listings will be shown on Facebook Marketplace, the entire process will be handled by eBay, the analyst told investors in a research note. The firm expects the channel expansion into Facebook Marketplace should “significantly expand” the audience and reach for eBay sellers’ listings. Citi pointed out Marketplace has over 1B monthly visitors, whereas eBay had 133M active buyers as of Q3. The firm thinks the partnership will be a net benefit for eBay as Facebook is still the largest social commerce platform globally.

LOOSENING THE GRIP: Starting in the U.S., Meta said it is ending its third party fact-checking program and moving to a Community Notes model. In a blog post, the company said “We will allow more speech by lifting restrictions on some topics that are part of mainstream discourse and focusing our enforcement on illegal and high-severity violations. We will take a more personalized approach to political content, so that people who want to see more of it in their feeds can.” Meta said “We’ve seen this approach work on X – where they empower their community to decide when posts are potentially misleading and need more context, and people across a diverse range of perspectives decide what sort of context is helpful for other users to see. We think this could be a better way of achieving our original intention of providing people with information about what they’re seeing – and one that’s less prone to bias.” President-elect Donald Trump told Fox News Digital that Meta has “come a long way” after the company announced it will end its fact-checking program, and that Meta’s “presentation was excellent,” Brooke Singman wrote. Trump’s comments came after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement in a video Tuesday morning, saying his company is “going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms.” Meta’s fact-checking partners, including Ganett’s (GCI) USA Today, were “blindsided” by Meta’s decision to drop them in favor of Community Notes, and are rejecting claims of being “too politically biased,” Wired’s David Gilbert wrote. Stifel called the replacement of fact-checkers with Community Notes “notable,” adding that such a feature became widely popular on X/Twitter following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company in 2022. The decision to replace fact checkers came after Meta announced that Dana White, John Elkann and Charlie Songhurst have been elected to the company’s board of directors. The policy changes along with the new board additions, represent the latest in a series of actions taken by Zuckerberg and the company “that we view as efforts to not only offer an environment we believe the majority of users desire, but also gain favor with the incoming Trump administration,” according Stifel, who keeps a Buy rating and $692 price target on Meta shares.

AI ARMS RACE: Anthropic is in advanced discussions to raise $2B in a deal that would value the AI startup at $60B, The Wall Street Journal’s Berber Jin reported. The funding round is being led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, according to people familiar with the matter. Amazon (AMZN) committed $4B to the startup in November, the Journal notes, adding that tech giants Meta and Google (GOOGL) are also investing billions to build their own AI capabilities.

DISCONTINUED: Meta has discontinued sales of its Quest Pro mixed reality headset, RoadtoVR’s Scott Hayden noted. The company announced several months ago that it was winding down Quest 2 and Quest Pro sales, and now the Quest Pro order page suggests users purchase the Quest 3 “for the ultimate mixed reality experience and premium comfort,” the author says, noting that consumers can still purchase Quest Pro’s Touch Pro controllers.

SMART GLASSES UTILIZED IN ATTACK: The man who drove a truck into a crowd of people in New Orleans on New Year’s Day had scouted the French Quarter and recorded video with his Meta smart glasses, The Associated Press reported. On October 31, Shamsud-Din Jabbar recorded video with the glasses as he cycled through the French Quarter and planned the attack, said Lyonel Myrthil, FBI special agent in charge of the New Orleans field office. Jabbar wore the glasses during the attack, but did not activate them, Myrthil added. Fourteen people were killed in the New Year’s Day attack.

SHARE SALE: In a regulatory filing, Meta Platforms chief legal officer Jennifer Newstead disclosed the sale of 905 class A shares of the company on December 31 at a price of $591.76 per share.

GLOBAL AFFAIRS CHIEF TRANSITION: Nick Clegg said via X: “As a new year begins, I have come to the view that this is the right time for me to move on from my role as President, Global Affairs at Meta. It truly has been an adventure of a lifetime! I am proud of the work I have been able to do leading and supporting teams across the company to ensure innovation can go hand in hand with increased transparency and accountability, and with new forms of governance. My time at the company coincided with a significant resetting of the relationship between ‘big tech’ and the societal pressures manifested in new laws, institutions and norms affecting the sector. I hope I have played some role in seeking to bridge the very different worlds of tech and politics – worlds that will continue to interact in unpredictable ways across the globe. I will be forever grateful to Mark and Sheryl Sandberg for taking me on in the first place – and to the many colleagues and teams I have had the good luck to work with ever since. It has been an extraordinary privilege to gain a front row insight into what makes Silicon Valley such an enduring hub of world leading innovation. And I am simply thrilled that my deputy, Joel Kaplan, will now become Meta’s Chief Global Affairs Officer. Over the years that we have worked together, we have become good friends as well as close colleagues – I have laughed with, as well as learned from, Joel in equal measure. He is quite clearly the right person for the right job at the right time! I much look forward to spending the next few months handing over the reins to Joel before finally leaving Meta after so many enjoyable years at the company.”

BUSINESS AS USUAL: Many creators, brands and advertisers are moving ahead with their businesses on TikTok even as the Chinese-owned app faces a congressionally mandated ban in the U.S. within weeks, barring a last-minute intervention, The Wall Street Journal’s Meghan Bobrowsky, Sarah E. Needleman, and Suzanne Vranica reported. Users are also taking an “I’ll-believe-it-when-I-see-it approach” as they continue posting videos and promoting products from TikTok Shop, according to the report. Lawyers for TikTok have asked the Supreme Court to suspend the ban while they appeal a lower court ruling upholding it, while President-elect Donald Trump previously indicated that he favored allowing TikTok to keep operating in the United States for at least a little while.

ADDITIONAL ANALYST COMMENTARY: Morgan Stanley noted that TaskUs (TASK) shares declined 13% during January 7 trading as codification of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s plan to relax content removal protocol appeared to have “spooked” TaskUs investors. However, the pullback was “unwarranted” due to the fact Meta’s plan to cease its fact checking services has “no bearing” on TaskUs’ content moderation business. The firm, which continues to believe TaskUs is growing market share with Meta, reaffirmed an Overweight rating and $21 price target on TaskUs shares.

BofA elevated its price target on Reddit (RDDT) to $180 from $99 and maintained a Neutral rating on the shares. Constructive channel checks for Reddit and a healthy direct response ad environment suggests another quarter of possibly accelerating ad revenue growth above guidance and estimates in Q4, the analyst said. The firm is boosting its Q4 revenue estimate by 3% and EBITDA forecast by 8% and while it says that AI optimism could support the multiple near-term, the firm added that “history suggests multiple risk” as the firm points out that peers in the sector have had revenue multiple compression as post-IPO ad growth slowed. Oppenheimer believes Integral Ad Science (IAS) could be a significant beneficiary from Meta’s announcement that it will be ending third-party fact-checking in the U.S., lifting topic restrictions allowing for more speech and allowing political content back on the platform. In short, Meta is adopting the X approach to content moderation in the U.S. using Community Notes. The firm thinks this has the potential to be a significant tailwind to Integral Ad Science’s brand safety and suitability products, most notably Total Media Quality. While Meta’s changes will be gradual, it could be a second half of the year revenue tailwind for Integrated Ad Science, says Oppenheimer. The firm has an Outperform rating on Integral Ad Science.

Wells Fargo upgraded Zoom (ZM) to Equal Weight from Underweight with a price target of $85, up from $70. The firm now sees a more balanced risk-reward supported by capital allocation, in the form of share repurchase and potentially acquisitions, becoming a larger element of the debate; improving platform story, including opportunity to drive both retention and monetization with AI companion; and FY26 setup given the balance between new product contribution to top line growth and margin drawdowns.

The fundamental backdrop for internet stocks remains healthy entering 2025, despite emerging risks like tariffs, and the pace of innovation in areas such as AI, AVs, robotics, and quantum computing is accelerating, the analyst told investors. The firm expects digital ads, e-commerce, and mobility, to deliver strong growth and margin expansion in 2025. Cantor Fitzgerald made the following price target changes:

• Upped the firm’s price target on Snap (SNAP) to $12 from $9
• Lowered its price target on Pinterest (PINS) to $36 from $37
• Boosted the firm’s price target on Meta to $730 from $680

Wedbush increased the firm’s price target on Meta to $680 from $640 and held an Outperform rating on the shares. While the firm expects a positive return for consumer internet again this year, 2025 will be a year of winners and losers as investors debate a range of topics spanning CapEx requirements and AI investments, slowing margin gains, disruption from autonomous vehicles, AI monetization across enterprise and consumer products, and the impact of FX headwinds.

Snapchat’s new ad formats Sponsored Snaps and Promoted Places are ramping, which should be a tailwind to advertising revenue in 2025, JMP Securities contended. The firm believes Sponsored Snaps can reach more than $180M of incremental run-rate revenue, and says Promoted Places are an additional benefit to 2025 revenue estimates. The firm has an Outperform rating and $16 price target on the shares.

JMP Securities upped its price target on Meta Platforms to $750 from $660 and reassessed an Outperform rating on the shares. The firm views 2025 as a year of technology “inflection” for multiple major new technologies as generative artificial intelligence is operationalized and autonomous vehicles become more widespread. JMP’s 2025 top internet picks are Meta, DoorDash (DASH) and Oddity (ODD). With Meta reportedly bringing to market Ray-Ban Meta glasses with a display in the second half of 2025, investors are more likely to give it credit for its extended reality investments that today account for billions in operating losses, contends the firm. Meanwhile, JMP believes Meta’s artificial intelligence can sustain advertising revenue growth in 2025 as generative AI begins to be integrated more deeply.