Et tu Facebook?.Rumours began circulating in October that Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, was planning major staff reductions, much the same as those at Twitter last week..The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday the rumours are now the truth, with Meta planning to fire thousands of employees this week, marking the first wide-ranging layoffs in the social media platform's history..In September, Meta had 87,300 employees, a 28% year-over-year jump..The Guardian reports the layoffs come after US$80 billion was wiped off company’s market value last month amid global economic downturn..Meta stock is down about 73% so far this year, from a value of more than US$1 trillion to US$270 billion..The company reported its metaverse division, Reality Labs, lost US$3.7 billion over the past three months, but said the losses would “grow significantly year over year” in 2023..Twitter and Meta are only the most recent high-tech firms that have released staff, joining companies such as Snap, Microsoft and others that trimmed staff in the past few months..When contacted by FOX Business News for a comment, a spokesperson for Meta declined, directing FOX to comments that CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg made during a third-quarter earnings call last month. ."In 2023, we’re going to focus our investments on a small number of high-priority growth areas,” Zuckerberg told investors on Oct. 26. "So that means some teams will grow meaningfully, but most other teams will stay flat or shrink over the next year.".Zuckerberg added that Meta expects to "end 2023 as either roughly the same size or even a slightly smaller organization than we are today.".The staff reduction was recommended in an open letter to Zuckerberg and the tech giant's board of directors last month by Altimeter Capital, a Meta investor, calling for them to reduce the company's workforce by 20%.."Like many other companies in a zero-rate world, Meta has drifted into the land of excess, too many people, too many ideas, too little urgency," Altimeter CEO Brad Gerstner wrote in the letter. "This lack of focus and fitness is obscured when growth is easy but deadly when growth slows and technology changes.".Zuckerberg said the company’s focus would be on the artificial intelligence powering recommendations for Instagram Reels, advertising and its metaverse exploration, adding he was convinced the “experimental bets” the company was making would pay off. .“Over time, these are going to end up being very important investments for the future of our business,” he said. “This is some of the most historic work we’re doing. People are going to look back on [this] decades from now and talk about the importance of the work that was done here.”
Et tu Facebook?.Rumours began circulating in October that Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, was planning major staff reductions, much the same as those at Twitter last week..The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday the rumours are now the truth, with Meta planning to fire thousands of employees this week, marking the first wide-ranging layoffs in the social media platform's history..In September, Meta had 87,300 employees, a 28% year-over-year jump..The Guardian reports the layoffs come after US$80 billion was wiped off company’s market value last month amid global economic downturn..Meta stock is down about 73% so far this year, from a value of more than US$1 trillion to US$270 billion..The company reported its metaverse division, Reality Labs, lost US$3.7 billion over the past three months, but said the losses would “grow significantly year over year” in 2023..Twitter and Meta are only the most recent high-tech firms that have released staff, joining companies such as Snap, Microsoft and others that trimmed staff in the past few months..When contacted by FOX Business News for a comment, a spokesperson for Meta declined, directing FOX to comments that CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg made during a third-quarter earnings call last month. ."In 2023, we’re going to focus our investments on a small number of high-priority growth areas,” Zuckerberg told investors on Oct. 26. "So that means some teams will grow meaningfully, but most other teams will stay flat or shrink over the next year.".Zuckerberg added that Meta expects to "end 2023 as either roughly the same size or even a slightly smaller organization than we are today.".The staff reduction was recommended in an open letter to Zuckerberg and the tech giant's board of directors last month by Altimeter Capital, a Meta investor, calling for them to reduce the company's workforce by 20%.."Like many other companies in a zero-rate world, Meta has drifted into the land of excess, too many people, too many ideas, too little urgency," Altimeter CEO Brad Gerstner wrote in the letter. "This lack of focus and fitness is obscured when growth is easy but deadly when growth slows and technology changes.".Zuckerberg said the company’s focus would be on the artificial intelligence powering recommendations for Instagram Reels, advertising and its metaverse exploration, adding he was convinced the “experimental bets” the company was making would pay off. .“Over time, these are going to end up being very important investments for the future of our business,” he said. “This is some of the most historic work we’re doing. People are going to look back on [this] decades from now and talk about the importance of the work that was done here.”
