Meta laying off 11,000
CEO Mark Zuckerberg tells staff he expected 2020-2021 boost to be a "permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended"
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Meta today told staff it would be cutting 13% of the company, or roughly 11,000 people, as reported by Variety.
The news went out in an email at 3 a.m. Pacific time, with staff learning about their individual fate on a rolling basis later in the day.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told staff he had been increasing the company's investments in recent years based on his belief that the boost the business saw in 2020 and 2021 would be a "permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended."
"Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected," Zuckerberg said. "Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I'd expected. I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that."
Beyond the job cuts, Meta is extending a hiring freeze that was already in place, reducing budgets and perks, and cutting discretionary funding.
However, it will continue to invest in AI discovery, advertising and business platforms, and its "long-term vision for the metaverse."
The Reality Labs AR/VR division pursuing Meta's metaverse vision has posted cumulative operating losses of more than $30 billion since 2019.