Facebook owner Meta to lay off 11,000 staff
Facebook owner Meta will lay off more than 11,000 of its staff in "the most difficult changes we've made in Meta's history," boss Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday.
"I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here. I know this is tough for everyone, and I'm especially sorry to those impacted," he said in a message to staff.
As of September 30, Meta had about 87,000 employees worldwide across its different platforms, which include social media sites Facebook and Instagram as well as messaging platform Whatsapp.
In his announcement of Meta's disappointing third-quarter results, Zuckerberg said the firm's staff would not increase by the end of 2023, and might decrease slightly.
The latest plans from Meta follow recent announcements by other tech firms to freeze hiring or cut their workforce as the industry fights economic headwinds.
Last Thursday, Silicon Valley firms Stripe and Lyft announced large-scale layoffs while Amazon said it would freeze hiring in its corporate offices.
Twitter, freshly acquired by Elon Musk, abruptly fired about half of its 7,500 employees last week.
Ad-supported platforms such as Facebook and Alphabet's Google are suffering from advertisers' budget cuts as they struggle with inflation and rising interest rates.
Meta in the third quarter saw its profits fall to $4.4 billion, a 52 percent decrease year-over-year. Its stock price took a major hit on the disappointing results, falling 25 percent in one day. The company's market value over the past year is down to $600 billion.
In addition to its ad-supported business woes, investors have been worried about Zuckerberg's decision to devote major funds into developing the metaverse.
