Posted on 11/07/2022 10:48:46 AM PST by Red Badger
Facebook parent company Meta is set to announce large-scale layoffs that will affect thousands of employees this week, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. The cuts could end up being the largest tech workforce reduction conducted this year, surpassing the recent Twitter layoffs that will reportedly affect at least half of its workforce. Meta reported more than 87,000 employees at the end of September.
While smaller on a percentage basis than the Twitter layoffs, the number of axed employees could account for one of the largest labor reductions across all industries this year. For Meta, which previously went by Facebook, the move will account for the biggest round of layoffs in the company’s 18-year-history.
A spokesman for Meta declined the outlet’s request for comment, referring to Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg’s recent statement that the company would “focus our investments on a small number of high priority growth areas.”
“So that means some teams will grow meaningfully, but most other teams will stay flat or shrink over the next year,” he said on the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Oct. 26. “In aggregate, we expect to end 2023 as either roughly the same size, or even a slightly smaller organization than we are today.”
The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Meta was looking to reduce expenses by 10 percent over the next year, in part through staff reductions. “Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn’t be here,” Zuckerberg told employees at a companywide meeting in June.
Like many companies in the tech space, Meta added a sizable number of employees in 2020 and 2021 as online became more common due to the pandemic. The social media giant added more than 27,000 employees in 2020 and 2021, and added an additional 15,344 in the first nine months of this year.
At the time of the planned layoffs, Meta’s stock price is down 70 percent on the year. The company has seen its growth share in the social media space decline in face of increased competition from Apple and TikTok, while the company itself has blamed deteriorating macroeconomic trends.
On the financial side, Meta’s spending has significantly increased over the past few quarters, causing its cash flow to decline by 98 percent in the previous quarter. Much of the company’s spending has been put towards the “metaverse” and Zuckerberg’s commitment to Reality Labs, a division of the company responsible for both virtual and augmented reality headsets as well as the creation of the metaverse.
Zuckerberg has described the metaverse as “a constellation of interlocking virtual worlds in which people will eventually work, play, live and shop.”
Investors appear to be spooked by the company’s heavy focus on the metaverse. Last month, investment firm Altimeter Capital said in an open letter to Zuckerberg that Meta should slash staff and cool its metaverse ambitions, the report stated.
Twitter layoffs and now Fakebook.
Real estate in that area should be a nightmare with all of these scumbags trying to sell in this environment. Sweet revenge.
Start the rumor! Just to watch an even bigger meltdown.
Seriously with the stock in the tank Meta is a takeover target, but we know there’s a reason that it’s sucking wind. Maybe someone like Mark Cuban will buy it and screw it up. Or it can continue to circle the drain until Musk decides to buy it and shut it down to eliminate competition with Twitter ;-) Many possibilities, mostly not-good for libs.
Areas of the country that enjoyed real estate spikes shall now enjoy a crashing of prices.
Nah!............................
Will all of their thousands of H1B visa employees be deported? That’s my big question here.
Good for them. They should try to experience some REAL REALITY.
If Facebook ever did shut down, my sister-in-law's social life would be OVER.
It didn't happen until she posts about it on Facebook - and tags everyone within a half-mile of where it happened...
By this administration????.............................
Zuckerberg spent $400 million on the 2020 election. I’ve read he’s spending about $80 million for the midterms.
I hope those fired by Facebook can think of a better use for that money now. Seems his QUEST for power is far more important than the company and their jobs.
The article just begs my question?
What do 87,000 employees do?
Zuck thinks of META and shouts “My Dream!”
Shareholders think of META stock and shout “Our Nightmares!!”
Apparently not much.......................
Is anyone calling it the 2022 Big Tech Bubble ?
are they gonna sue like what is happening over at Twitter?
“WOMEN AND MINORITIES HARDEST HIT!’’. Film at 11!
They already know how to code, so getting another job should be a breeze for these folks (according to the lib advice given to laid off coal mining and rust belt workers).
now will probably work for the IRS
WHo would they sue?.................
Reality bites.
Heard someone say Zuckerberg made the mistake of investing in a market that didn’t (won’t?) exist. I take that to mean the Metaverse, right?
Facebook, Meta and Twitter employees are finding out their pronouns … was/were
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