Meta will cut 13% of its workforce, the company announced Wednesday.
The owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp first mass lay-offs will result in 11,000 employees losing their jobs, from a worldwide headcount of 87,314 as of the end of September.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the cuts were “the most difficult changes we’ve made in Meta’s history”, and also announced further steps to become a more efficient company.
“I’ve decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13% and let more than 11,000 of our talented employees go. We are also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through Q1,” Zuckerberg said in a letter to employees.
The firm is still battling soaring costs from its push into the metaverse, amid a weak advertising market and uncertainty among tech firms. The company’s overall sales declined 4% to $27.71 billion in the quarter while its operating income dropped 46% from the previous year to $5.66 billion.
According to Zuckerberg, not only has online commerce’s downturn impacted the Meta’s results. “Increased competition, and ads signal loss caused revenue to be much lower than expected”.
The CEO said he took “accountability for these decisions and for how we got here”.
The news follows major lay-offs at Twitter, which cut about half its staff, and other tech firms.
Shares of Meta were up about 5.4% when markets opened.
