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Highlights
- Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has been sued for about £2.3 billion in a class-action lawsuit for exploiting the personal data of UK users.
- The lawsuit is a first for Meta in the UK, and will seek compensation for damages to its UK users
Tech conglomerate Meta, which is Facebook’s parent company, is being sued for about £2.3 billion in a class action lawsuit. The lawsuit was launched under the claims that data of about 44 million Facebook users in the UK was exploited as the company imposed unjust rules that demanded consumers’ personal data to access the social platform.
The lawsuit is seeking compensation for damages for the users who used then social media platform between 1 October 2015 and 31 December 2019 even for once. It was launched by Dr Liza Lovdahl Gormsen at the Competition Appeal Tribunal in a first-of-its-kind case against Meta in the UK.
The lawsuit stated that Facebook had broken UK’s 1998 Competition Act, as it had coerced UK users to accept its terms and condition by abusing its dominant position in the market. This helped in the group making huge amounts in advertiser generated revenues from their personal data.
On the back of this development, let us look at 2 FTSE-listed tech stocks and explore their investment possibilities:
- Minds + Machines Group Ltd (LON: MMX)
Minds + Machines Group Ltd is the owner of top-level domains and is a part of the FTSE AIM All-Share index. The group’s shares surged on Friday, rising over 15 per cent after it stated that it aims to return £19 million to its shareholders through a tender offer and subsequently cancel its AIM listing on the LSE.
The tender offer had a price of 10.4 pence per share. It comes after the group had returned about US$ 80.0 million to its shareholder in October 2021 in a tender offer.
Image source: Refinitiv
The group’s shares were trading at GBX 9.50, up sharply by 15.15 per cent, on 14 January at 11:18 AM BST, while the FTSE AIM All-Share index was at 1,166.16, down by 0.48 per cent.
It was the highest riser on the index following the news.
The group’s market cap was at £22.38 million, and it has given shareholders a one-year return of 84.85 per cent as of date.
- NCC Group PLC (LON: NCC)
NCC is an IT security group and is a part of the FTSE 250 index. The group said in its FY 2021 results that it anticipates its FY 2022 to have an increased revenue growth in comparison to FY 2021 and estimates it will be partly offset by higher global costs due to inflationary pressure among other factors.
It expects its IPM integration costs to be around £2.5 million.
Image source: Refinitiv
The group’s shares were trading at GBX 224.50, up by 3.70 per cent on 14 January at 11:56 AM BST, while the FTSE 250 index was at 22,874.51, down by 0.37 per cent. The group’s market cap was at £670.63 million, as of date. It has given shareholders a one-year return of -13.29 per cent as of date.
