The Metaverse. After two years in the pandemic-verse, spending time in a virtual reality where socializing doesn’t risk the transfer of illness seems like a dream. Right? Not only is this virtual reality becoming a reality-reality, it brings with it opportunities for innovation and economic upside for those who are ready to play a role.
Virtual real estate is up for sale, Bill Gates projects that most meetings will be held in the Metaverse within 2-3 years, and businesses are already popping up in the Metaverse. Firms like Epazz (OTCMKTS: Epaz) are bringing business solutions to the blockchain and metaverse. Providing Bitcoin wallet debit and credit cards, cryptocurrency to facilitate metaverse real estate transactions, and virtual office solutions, EPAZ and firms like it, are making existing, investing, and thriving in the Metaverse easy for investors and entrepreneurs.
Epazz Inc. (OTCMKTS:EPAZ) has upgraded its ZenaPay Bitcoin wallet with credit and debit cards launching in 2022. It is designed to address the hemp market, enabling consumers to use cryptocurrency to buy hemp digitally without physical currency. It takes Bitcoin and converts it into fiat currency.
One of the stocks that could be watched today by investors is that of Immersion Corporation (NASDAQ:IMMR). The company is mainly involved in the development, designing, creation and licensing of a form of sensory technology known as haptic technology. Haptic technology is regarded as 3D technology but for touch and has significant application in a range of industries starting from gaming to mobile and automation.
Up until 2020, the mobile segment had made up as much as 69% of the company’s revenues and on the other hand, the automotive market and the PC and gaming markets contributed 15% each. In this context, it is necessary to point out that the Haptic Technology market is expected to grow at the compound annual growth rate of as much as 14.50% from 2021 through to 2027. It may be the right time for investors to start tracking the Immersion stock.
The next one in line is Fastly Inc (NYSE:FSLY), an edge computing company that saw its stock suffer from a fairly strong selloff on Thursday. The plunge in the stock price was triggered by the company’s fourth quarter financial results, which were declared the day before. It should be noted that the revenues did grow 13% year on year and did better than estimates.
However, the guidance for 2022 from the company proved to be a disappointment for investors. The company projected revenues between the $97 million and $100 million range in the first quarter. It was a disappointment considering the fact that Fastly generated revenues of $97.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Matterport Inc (NASDAQ:MTTR) stock had a rough session on Thursday as it slumped 17.50% following quarterly earnings. The company said that revenue during the fourth quarter grew 15% year-over-year to $27.10 million. Net loss widened sharply to ($161.0 million) or 66 cents a share from ($3.1 million) or 9 cents a share. On an adjusted basis, the company lost 10 cents a share.
Analysts were projecting the company to report a loss of 9 cents a share on revenue of $27.7 million.
Here’s part of CEO RJ Pittman’s statement in the earnings release:
In 2021, we doubled our subscriber base, increased Spaces Under Management by 54%, and subscription revenue grew 47%, and total revenue was up 29% for the full year. … Relentless innovation is the norm at Matterport, and with new products like Matterport Axis and Matterport for Android, we are racing to bring precision 3D capture and digital twins to everyone in the built world. … Every industry on every continent is embracing digitization, and I am more confident than ever about the company’s outlook for 2022 and the decade ahead.
Himax Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:HIMX) stock fell 10% in the previous session despite the company reported better-than-estimated fourth quarter results.
The fabless semiconductor company said that it earned 85 cents a share, up from 20 cents in the year-ago quarter, and topping analysts’ projection of 82 cents a share. Revenue for the quarter came in at $451.9 million, grew 64% Y-O-Y, and topped Wall Street’s projection of $450.3 million.
