Meta, Facebook’s Parent Company, Plans Massive Layoffs This Week

• Meta announced plans for massive layoffs in a statement on Monday.
• The firm has lost about $67 billion in stock market value this year.
• Microsoft, Twitter, and Snap have cut jobs and scaled back.

With plans to fire hundreds of workers this week, Facebook’s parent company Meta announced plans to reduce its workforce in a statement on November 6, according to Wall Street Journal.

The Wall Street Journal stated that the layoffs might affect “many thousands” of Meta staff members and that a declaration was anticipated as early as November 9.

Many employees will be offered severance packages or transferred to other parts of the company.

Meta, which owns the social media platform Facebook and messaging service WhatsApp, has struggled to keep up with its competitors regarding user growth. It said it had lost $2 billion for the year in October.

The layoff is believed to come from Meta’s efforts to focus on its core businesses, which include Facebook and WhatsApp.

On top of the more than half a trillion dollars in value already lost this year, Facebook parent Meta predicted a bad holiday quarter in October and much higher costs in the following year, wiping nearly $67 billion off Meta’s stock market worth.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, said in a statement that the layoffs were “necessary and difficult but important” and would help the company “focus on its mission.”

In an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s shareholder Altimeter Capital Management stated that the company needed to streamline by eliminating jobs and capital expenditures. They also said that investors had lost faith in Meta due to its increased spending and pivot to the metaverse.

As global economic growth slows due to increasing interest rates, rising inflation, and a European energy crisis, several businesses, including Microsoft Corp, Twitter Inc., and Snap Inc., have cut down jobs and scaled back in recent months.