The Verge: “Facebook is planning to change its company name next week to reflect its focus on building the metaverse, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter. The coming name change, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to talk about at the company’s annual Connect conference on October 28th, but could unveil sooner, is meant to signal the tech giant’s ambition to be known for more than social media and all the ills that entail. The rebrand would likely position the blue Facebook app as one of many products under a parent company overseeing groups like Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, and more. A spokesperson for Facebook declined to comment for this story…”

• See also Fortune’s Datasheet by Robert Hackett: “When companies rename themselves, it often signals that they’ve run out of other options. “It’s a strategy of last resort,” says Prashant Malaviya, professor of marketing at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, “because brands are one of the biggest assets that companies own.”
• See also Bloomberg: Meta? Horizon? Facebook Renaming Report Sparks Speculation
• See also The Atlantic – The Metaverse is Bad