Meta is reportedly slashing its metaverse division's budget. Joan Cros/NurPhoto/Getty Images) New York —

It appears Meta may finally be ready to put the metaverse out of its misery.

Shares of the company formerly known as Facebook shot up 7% early Thursday in response to a Bloomberg report that CEO Mark Zuckerberg is slashing the metaverse team’s budget by as much as 30%. CNN hasn’t confirmed the report, and Meta didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The stock ended the day up 3.4%.

It’s not hard to see why Wall Street is so thrilled. After four years and billions of dollars wasted, the metaverse — a feature that Zuck believed in so deeply that he renamed the company after it — is more or less cooked.

The thing never made much sense, even when Zuck dramatically declared

See Full Page