Facebook Parent Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg Confirmed Layoffs To Begin Today; Thousands Of Employees Will Be Affected
November 10, 2022: Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta started hiring as more businesses switched to online mode during the Covid-19 pandemic.
It added 27,000 employees in 2020 and 2021 combined, and 15,344 more in the first nine months of this year. Facebook parent to lay off thousands of employees now
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, will begin laying off employees as part of a cost-cutting strategy starting Wednesday, November 9, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has confirmed.
The 38-year-old billionaire told executives on Tuesday that Meta expects headcount to be lower in 2023 than this year.
Employees who will be laid off will be notified starting Wednesday morning, said CEO Zuckerberg, who appeared frustrated at Tuesday’s meeting.
He also bore responsibility for Meta’s “missteps” and his “excessive optimism” that led to overstaffing, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal.
While Zuckerberg did not comment on the number of employees that would be affected, the massive layoffs at Meta will affect about 10 percent of the company, which had a headcount of more than 87,000 as of Sept. 30, according to the insider.
The planned layoffs will be the first extensive head-count reduction in the company’s 18-year history. The employees who will be laid off will get at least four months’ salary.
Zuckerberg cited recruiting and business teams among those facing layoffs. An internal announcement of the layoff plan is expected at 6 a.m. Wednesday, Fox News reported.
Meanwhile, Meta’s stock has fallen more than 70 percent this year, to its lowest level since early 2016, and the Silicon Valley major is now the worst performer in the S&P 500 in 2022.
The company has highlighted worsening macroeconomic trends, but investors are also worried about its costs and threats to the company’s core social media business.
With Meta shares falling to about 25 percent of their value last month, Facebook founder Zuckerberg’s net worth fell to $36 billion, dropping him from the list of the world’s top 20 billionaires.
He is worth $37.2 billion as of Tuesday’s close on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. After being aggressively recruited by the pandemic, the tech industry is facing its biggest layoffs in years.
The Meta layoffs will follow Twitter, which recently cut half of its workforce under new owner Elon Musk.
Several major technology giants, including Microsoft and Snap, have also slashed workforces and put hiring freezes in recent months.
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