The Meta Platforms Inc. pavilion on the opening day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Monday, May 23, 2022.
Jason Alden | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Shares of Facebook owner Meta rose about 5% Monday after a Wall Street Journal report over the weekend said the company could begin layoffs as early as Wednesday.
According to the Journal, the layoffs could affect thousands of employees in the first major downsizing in the company’s history. According to the company, it had 87,000 employees at the end of September.
A Meta spokesperson didn’t comment on the report, but cited CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s comments on Meta’s earnings call last month.
“In 2023, we will focus our investments on a small number of high-priority growth areas,” Zuckerberg said at the time. “That means some teams will grow significantly, but most other teams will be flat or shrink over the next year. Overall, we expect to end 2023 with either roughly the same size or even a slightly smaller organization than today.”
The company’s stock has fallen 72% this year as it tried to roll out a new strategy focused on building the metaverse. The market cap is now under $260 billion.
– CNBC’s Ashley Capoot contributed to this report.
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