Meta will lay off 10,000 more workers and incur restructuring costs ranging from $3 billion to $5 billion. notified Tuesday, with the CEO Mark Zuckerberg warning of economic instability could continue for “many years”.
Meta shares closed up 7% on Tuesday.
“Here’s the timeline you can expect: in the coming months, organizational leaders will announce restructuring plans focused on flattening our organizations, canceling lower-priority projects and reducing our hiring rates,” Zuckerberg said in a message to employees, which was also posted on the technology company’s blog.
He added that the Facebook parent plans to close 5,000 additional open roles that it has yet to fill. In a nod to continued economic uncertainty, Zuckerberg noted that the company should prepare for “the possibility that this new economic reality will continue for many years.”
In a SEC filing When Meta announced the cuts, it also said it expected to reduce total costs in 2023, from $86 billion to $92 billion.
The new round of layoffs follows an earlier round of job cuts, notified in November, it affected more than 11,000 workers, which represented roughly 13% of Meta’s total workforce.
Zuckerberg has set 2023 as the company’s “year of efficiency,” where the company aims to become “a stronger and more agile organization.”
“We’re a technology company, and our ultimate output is what we build for people,” Zuckerberg said. As part of the restructuring, the company will also increase the number of direct reports each manager has.
Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before the House Financial Services Committee on “An Inquiry into Facebook and Its Impact on the Financial Services and Housing Sectors” at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC on October 23, 2019.
ALMONDS NGAN | AFP | Getty Images
Zuckerberg told analysts in February that Meta plans to “reduce projects that aren’t working or may no longer be critical” while “removing layers of middle managers to make decisions faster.”
“A leaner organization will accomplish its top priorities faster,” Zuckerberg’s message said.
Yet Meta continues to spend billions of dollars developing the virtual reality and augmented reality technology necessary to build the digital universe that coined the metaverse. The company’s Reality Labs division tasked with creating the metaverse lost about $13.7 billion in 2022 on $2.16 billion in revenue.
