Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

AwesomeBrainPowers t1_j1cfloi wrote

I suppose it's better than nothing, but Meta's market cap is 310$Billion, so it could pay that fine one hundred times over and still be worth well over 200$Billion—which would still make it more valuable than Shell, McDonalds, Toyota, or Nike.

Until these companies have t pay fines that would make every single member of their C-suite sit down and cry for days, these sorts of things are just going to be the cost of doing business. (Specifically, the business of mishandling private user data.)

117

LittleRedSquirrel11 t1_j1diu6g wrote

Market Cap (which has no tangible value until “realization”) and Cash are not the same thing. While I agree the fines could be bigger the comparison of fines vs market cap is disingenuous to the degree a fine of several hundred million actually effects a company. Metas Cash & equivalents was just shy of 48 billion in 2021 (so still a shit ton) but the fine compared to operational resources is far more damaging as they could only pay it 66 times over (LOL) rather than the 428 ish times the market cap (which,again, isnt real money) would suggest.

19

TogepiMain t1_j1dxucs wrote

You don't get to use the market cap to make your company look good and not also have it used against you when you fuck up. I mean, they all do, but if you use the inflated numbers, you pay the inflated fines

14

Cicero912 t1_j1elein wrote

Market cap doesnt mean shit to a company and has little relation to a companies actual cashflow.

Market cap is for consumers, not companies.

1

Paoshan t1_j1hr6x6 wrote

What metric would you like to use instead? Feel free to name one, and a number, as as a source. Otherwise, I will continue to be outraged by this pathetic fine

0