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Google PlayMeta Platforms Inc, the owner of Facebook, has paid $60 million to acquire the exclusive rights to the name “Meta” from U.S. regional bank Meta Financial Group, Reuters reports.
In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Monday, South Dakota-based Meta Financial announced that it sold all Meta trademark assets to Beige Key LLC, a Delaware-based company that is connected to Meta Platforms.
“Beige Key is affiliated with us and we have acquired these trademark assets,” a Meta Platforms spokesperson told Reuters.
According to the filing, Meta Financial will have one year to remove Meta from its name and all branding.
The news arrives just over a month after Mark Zuckerberg officially unveiled the new name for the company, which counts Instagram and WhatsApp among its properties.
“Starting today, our company is now Meta,” Zuckerberg said Oct. 28 on the Facebook Connect livestream event. The new name specifically refers to the company’s commitment to the virtual-reality ‘metaverse.’”
“Our mission remains the same—it’s still about bringing people together,” he explained further. “But now we have a new North Star, to help bring the metaverse to life, and we have a new name that reflects the full breadth of what we do and the future that we want to help build.”
Zuckerberg added, “Today we’re seen as a social-media company, but in our DNA is building technology to connect people. And the metaverse is the next frontier.”
