Facebook has successfully overhauled its business before. This time will be harder

Ahead of its 2012 initial public offering, Facebook was in trouble. Its revenue growth was slowing, expenses were surging and it was falling behind competitors in the transition to smartphones and other mobile devices.

But within two years, the company had managed to turn things around. In the first three months of 2014, its sales grew 72% from the prior year and profits tripled after it re-organized to be "mobile first." That successful transition has since become part of Facebook's lore and a major reason for its dominance.

A decade later, the company, now called Meta (FB), finds itself at a similar crossroads. It shocked Wall Street on Wednesday when it announced declining quarterly profits, stagnating user growth and a gloomy revenue outlook for the start of this year, prompting the worst trading day in its history as a public company.