Meta Will Lay Off Thousands of Workers This Week

Meta intends to begin major layoffs affecting thousands of employees beginning this week, adding to Silicon Valley’s increasing job losses.

Among other things, the business owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Meta is one of the most valuable corporations in the world.

Facebook, Messenger, Facebook Watch, and Meta Portal are among Meta’s products and services. It also owns 9.99% of Jio Platforms, Oculus, Giphy, Mapillary, Kustomer, and Presize. In 2021, advertising sales accounted for 97.5% of the company’s revenue.

The “metaverse,” according to Meta, is the integrated environment that connects all of the company’s products and services.

The layoffs might begin as early as Wednesday, according to the Journal. It has already instructed employees to cancel any non-essential travel beginning this week.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes Meta will be smaller in 2023 than it is this year.

It comes after Elon Musk slashed over 3,700 positions at Twitter last week as part of his $44 billion (£38 billion) purchase of the social media business.

As it invests extensively in its metaverse drive, Meta is suffering from enormous losses. Its stock has lost nearly three-quarters of its value this year.

The corporation is dealing with a general slowdown in advertising spending as inflation and recession fears weigh on it. This is having a negative impact on its Facebook and Instagram brands in particular.

Altimeter Capital Management, a Meta shareholder, has sent an open letter to Mr Zuckerberg, advising him to eliminate staff and capital expenditure in order to streamline the company or risk losing investor confidence.

Meta is facing greater competition from TikTok in China, as well as advertising-related hurdles from Apple as a result of recent modifications to the iPhone’s operating system that limit how much data advertisers can extract.

However, Meta is also facing shareholder backlash over its intentions to invest billions of dollars in its experimental metaverse branch, Reality Labs. Mr Zuckerberg’s personal project, the metaverse, has had about $100 billion wiped off his worth in the last year.