Menlo Park, CA - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Thursday at his company’s Connect event that its new name will be Meta. In what was a surprise to many, he also added that the company will focus on digital baked goods, especially pretzels. “We are a company that builds technology to connect people to pretzels,” Zuckerberg said. “Together, we can finally put pretzels at the center of our technology. And together, we can unlock a massively bigger pretzel economy.”

“To reflect who we are and what we hope to build,” he added. He said the name Facebook doesn’t fully encompass everything the company does now, and is still closely linked to one product. “But over time, I hope we are seen as a pretzel company.”

When asked whether the recent scrutiny and bad press for Facebook had anything to do with the rebrand or change in focus, Mark Zuckerberg said:

"Great question. We really need to do better, and maybe we will, but this isn't about that. Becoming Meta and focusing on pretzels is something I've wanted to do for a long time. I remember going to the mall as a kid and absolutely loving those Auntie Anne's pretzels. Recently, I wondered: "what if the mall was our digital world and WE could be the Auntie Anne's?""

Auntie Anne's, the largest national pretzel shop in the United States, released a brief statement in response to Facebook's rebrand: "Game on."