Meta to cut more than 11,000 jobs in restructuring

Meta will cut more than 11,000 people (13% of the workforce) as part of a restructuring of its organisational structure. Mark Zuckerberg addressed employees with the открытым письмом.

In it he said he bore responsibility for the company’s missteps, and that his “excessive optimism about growth” led to the headcount being bloated.

“After the pandemic, a macroeconomic downturn, intensifying competition and ad cuts led to revenues that were far below what I expected,” said the head of Meta.

He added that restructuring the teams would cut costs and boost the company’s efficiency.

The headcount optimization will affect all divisions, but primarily recruiting and business teams. Meta also guaranteed that laid-off US employees will receive:

• severance pay equal to at least four months’ salary;
• payment for unused vacation days;
• payouts of the company’s equity awards;
• six months of medical insurance;
• three months of career-search support;
• immigration support.

Employees outside the United States will receive similar assistance, subject to local labour laws.

Meta will also extend the hiring moratorium on new workers until the first quarter of 2023.

According to WSJ, executives in many divisions have already begun notifying their subordinates of layoffs.

Earlier reports said that on November 9 the company would conduct the first major round of layoffs. By the end of the third quarter it employed 87,000 people.

Since the start of 2022, Meta’s shares have fallen by more than 70%. The company reported, for the first time in 18 years, a decline in Facebook’s unique users.

In July–September, the loss of the metaverse unit Reality Labs within Meta amounted to $3.7 billion ($9.4 billion year-to-date).

On the eve of Meta’s third-quarter earnings release, Altimeter Capital Management’s Brad Gerstner urged Zuckerberg to cut personnel costs by at least 20%, curb investments by at least $5 billion and cap Reality Labs’ development spending at $5 billion per year.

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