CNN business
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Facebook’s parent company Meta is said to be planning the first major job cuts in the company’s history as it deals with a shrinking business and fears of a looming recession.
Job cuts are expected to affect thousands of workers and could start as early as this week, The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend, citing an unnamed person familiar with the matter. rice field. According to his SEC filing in September, Meta has more than 87,000 people.
Meta declined to comment for this report.
On a conference call last month to discuss third-quarter earnings results, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he expects the company to be “about the same size or slightly smaller than it is today” at the end of 2023. said.
Cuts are likely as advertiser budgets tighten and Apple’s iOS privacy changes weigh heavily on Meta’s core business. The company last month reported a decline in second-quarter revenue, with profits halved from a year earlier. The decline in profitability is largely due to Meta spending billions of dollars building a future version of the Internet called the Metaverse.
Boasting a market capitalization of over $1 trillion last year, Meta is now valued at around $250 billion. (Meta’s share price opened more than 5% higher Monday morning following reports of job cuts. )
Meta isn’t the only tech company reportedly rethinking staffing. In an industry that was at times considered unmanageable, the surprising changes Many tech companies have announced hiring freezes or layoffs in recent months after experiencing rapid growth during the pandemic.
Last week, ride-sharing company Lyft announced it would cut 13% of its workforce, while payments processor Stripe said it would cut 14% of its workforce. On the same day, e-commerce giant Amazon announced it was suspending corporate hiring.
Facebook rival Twitter made significant company-wide cuts on Friday under new owner Elon Musk. The cuts impacted departments such as Ethical AI, Marketing and Communications, and Search and Public Policy teams.
In the days that followed, Twitter (TWTR) reportedly called on dozens of laid-off employees to reinstate them, according to Bloomberg.
