Meta Platforms Inc plans to begin large-scale layoffs this week. (Representative)
Meta Platforms Inc plans to begin large-scale layoffs this week that will affect thousands of employees, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter, with an announcement slated for Wednesday.
Meta declined to comment on the WSJ report.
Facebook’s parent company Meta in October forecast a weak holiday quarter and significantly higher costs next year, which would take away about $67 billion from Meta’s market value, adding to more than half a trillion dollars already lost added this year.
The disappointing outlook comes as Meta grapples with slowing global economic growth, competition from TikTok, privacy changes from Apple, concerns about massive spending on the Metaverse, and the ever-present threat of regulation.
Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said he expects the Metaverse investments to take about a decade to bear fruit. In the meantime, he’s had to freeze hiring, close projects, and reorganize teams to cut costs.
“In 2023, we will focus our investments on a small number of high-priority growth areas. That means some teams will grow significantly, but most other teams will stagnate or shrink over the next year. Overall, we expect the end of 2023 to be either about the same size or even slightly smaller than we are today,” said Mark Zuckerberg on the last conference call in late October.
The social media company had cut its plans to hire engineers by at least 30% in June, with Mark Zuckerberg warning employees to prepare for an economic downturn.
Meta’s shareholder Altimeter Capital Management had previously said in an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg that the company needs to streamline by cutting jobs and investments, adding that Meta lost investor confidence as it increased spending and Metaverse switched.
Several tech companies, including Microsoft Corp, Twitter Inc and Snap Inc, have cut jobs and scaled back hiring in recent months as global economic growth slows amid higher interest rates, rising inflation and an energy crisis in Europe.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and was published by a syndicated feed.)
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