Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg spoke to hundreds of executives on Tuesday (local time) and confirmed about laying off employees on Wednesday morning.
Zuckerberg appeared downcast in Tuesday’s meeting and said he was accountable for the company’s missteps. His over-optimism about growth had led to overstaffing, according to people present in the meeting, reported The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The company is expected to cut thousands of employees beginning Wednesday, and this will likely be the largest of the year to date in the tech sector, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people in the know about the matter.
Employees who are to be laid off will receive at least four months of salary, the newspaper reported. According to the report, Zuckerberg mentioned recruiting and business teams as among those facing layoffs. An internal announcement of the layoff plan is expected at about 6 am Wednesday, reported Fox News.
Meta’s head of human resources, Lori Goler, told the group that employees who lose their jobs will be provided with at least four months of salary as severance, according to people familiar with the meeting.
Zuckerberg described broad cuts and specifically mentioned the recruiting and business teams as among those facing layoffs. A general internal announcement of the company’s layoff plans is expected around 6 a. Eastern time on Wednesday, with the specific employees losing their jobs informed over the course of the morning, reported WSJ.
Following the meeting, company directors in numerous sections of the organization began notifying their subordinates of cuts and reorganizations.
Inside Meta, employees have been seeking specifics about the coming layoffs for days and planning for the worst by forming external groups with current colleagues and discussing how to use benefits, reported WSJ.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, reported more than 87,000 employees at the end of September. The Company aggressively hired through the COVID-19 pandemic.
The planned layoffs would be the first broad head-count reductions in the company’s 18-year history.
Meanwhile, Meta’s stock has fallen more than 70 per cent this year. The company has highlighted deteriorating macroeconomic trends, but investors have also been spooked by its spending and threats to the company’s core social-media business.
Growth for that business in many markets has stalled amid stiff competition from TikTok, and Apple Inc requirement that users opt into the tracking of their devices has curtailed the ability of social media platforms to target ads, reported WSJ.
After hiring aggressively through the pandemic, the tech industry is facing its biggest retrenchment in years. Twitter Inc. is laying off thousands of employees under new owner Elon Musk, as he tries to restructure the company to match his vision while facing widespread concern from advertisers about its new direction.