A Canadian company has experienced a surge in the value of its shares in the past few days. Surprisingly, he has to thank Facebook for his recent fortune. Canada’s Meta Material has been the target of some name confusion as many rushed to invest in the retail merchant after Facebook rebranded itself as Meta. Investors have apparently confused shares of Nova Scotia-based Meta Materials with shares of the social media giant. As a result, just hours after Facebook announced it would be called Meta, Meta Materials gained 26% in after-hours trading.
Facebook announced last week that it was changing its corporate name to Meta. The rebranding was done with the intention of bringing its brands together under Meta Platforms, with the idea of being “the metaverse first”.
According to a report by Radio-Canada, the trading session saw an exchange of more than 12 million shares of the Canadian company. This, the report adds, is more than double the usual daily volume. The company website describes its technology which enables special functions such as “transparently blocking a specific light color or invisibly heating a window in a car”.
While Meta Materials works with the stock symbol MMAT, Facebook’s Meta platforms, as of December 1, 2021, will work with the stock symbol MVRS.
Interestingly, on Thursday, George Palikaras, Founder and CEO of Meta Material, welcomed Facebook into the “metaverse” after the rebranding. Tweeting occasionally, Palikaras said, “On behalf of Meta Material, I cordially welcome Facebook to the metaverse.”
From @Metamaterialtec I cordially welcome @Facebook to the #metaverse. #To go beyond $ MMAT #WITH #VR Meta, meet META® 🙂 https://t.co/8gOgkYTvSl pic.twitter.com/2i2PMKwzFA
– George Palikaras (@palikaras) 28 October 2021
This is not the first time, however, that a small business has benefited from such cases of mistaken identity. According to CBC, in 2013, when microblogging site Twitter announced its intention to go public, a dormant electronics retailer called Tweeter Home Entertainment Group saw its share increase by 1,400%.
Meanwhile, Palikaras shared another connection with Facebook saying the company will be featured in an upcoming online conference alongside the virtual reality (VR) division of Facebook and other companies.
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