Meta And Amazon Set Lobby Spending Record In 2021


(MENAFN- ValueWalk) KNFind / Pixabay

Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and Amazon Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) have set a record in the amount of money they spent on Washington lobbying last year. The revelation comes after the same companies had set another record in 2020 while trying to influence big tech regulation.

Get The Full Henry Singleton Series in PDF

Get the entire 4-part series on Henry Singleton in PDF. Save it to your desktop, read it on your tablet, or email to your colleagues

Q4 2021 hedge fund letters, conferences and more

Seth Klarman's 2021 Letter: Baupost's“Never-Ending” Hunt For Information

Baupost's investment process involves 'never-ending' gleaning of facts to help support investment ideas Seth Klarman writes in his end-of-year letter to investors. In the letter, a copy of which ValueWalk has been able to review, the value investor describes the Baupost Group's process to identify ideas and answer the most critical questions about its potential Read More

Lobbying Expenses

According to MarketWatch , both Meta - parent company of Facebook - and Amazon spent a record $20.1 million and $20.3 million on lobbying, respectively, in 2021. The amounts are slightly higher than the previous year, which was also a record in itself.

“Amazon and Meta rank as the leaders in lobbying spending among the country's five biggest technology companies by market value, exceeding the other giants' outlays,” the website reports.

According to company disclosures, Google - Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) - and its subsidiaries spent a good $11.5 million on lobbying in 2021, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) spent $10.3 million, while Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) splashed $6.5 million.

Big tech companies have been increasing the amount they spend on lobbying as they are more constantly under fire for their business practices. The White House is determined to clamp on monopolistic endeavors as President Joe Biden has said,“Capitalism without competition isn't capitalism. It's exploitation.”

Scandal-Proof?

However, according to MarketWatch,“investors in the tech giants mostly don't look that scared of Washington, as four out of the five companies' stocks have outpaced or roughly matched the S&P 500's rise of 16% over the past 12 months.”

Shares of Google have jumped 41% during the same period, while those of Microsoft have increased by 34%, and Apple's by 20%. Further,“Meta's stock has tacked on 16%. Just Amazon's stock has underperformed the S&P, losing 10% over the past 12 months.”

In the case of Amazon, the e-commerce giant has emphasized its lobbying on several aspects such as cannabis reform, postal rates, electric vehicle infrastructure, telehealth, counterfeit, and drones.

Meanwhile, Meta has focused on misinformation, immigration reforms, artificial intelligence, privacy, and election integrity.

Amazon and Meta are part of the Entrepreneur Index , which tracks 60 of the largest publicly traded companies managed by their founders or their founders' families.

Updated on Jan 21, 2022, 3:44 pm

MENAFN21012022005205011743ID1103576472


ValueWalk

Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.