Meta laying off more than 11,000 employees

Mark Zuckerberg told the world last October that he was rebranding Facebook to Meta as the company pushes toward the metaverse.

Meta is laying off more than 11,000 employees, according to a letter to employees from the company's CEO.

Some of the most difficult changes we've made in Meta's history are being shared today by Mark. More than 11,000 of our talented employees will be let go as a result of my decision. In order to become a leaner and more efficient company, we are cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through the first quarter.

Meta's shares were up 4% before the market opened.

The layoffs come at a bad time for Facebook's parent company Meta, which provided weak guidance in late October for its fourth-quarter earnings that spooked investors and caused its shares to sink.

Meta's costs and expenses increased in the third quarter to $22.1 billion. In the quarter, the company's sales declined 4% to $27.71 billion and its operating income dropped 46% to $5.66 billion.

I want to make sure that we are held accountable for how we got here. I am sorry to those who have been impacted by this. The person said, "Zuck said."

He said that recruiting will be affected by the company's plan to hire fewer people in three years. The hiring freeze was extended through the first quarter.

There's no way around it. He thanked the people who are leaving for everything they have done.

Employees who are impacted will get 16 weeks of pay and two additional weeks for every year of service. Health insurance will be covered by Meta.

The metaverse is a digital world that can be accessed by virtual reality and augmented reality headsets. Meta has spent $9.4 billion on this bet so far, and the company expects losses to grow significantly over the course of the year.

Meta plans to focus its investments on a small number of high priority growth areas during the next year, according to a statement from CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Some teams will grow, but most will stay the same over the next year. We expect to end the year as either the same size or slightly smaller than we are today.

Meta has more than 87,000 employees.

Mark Zuckerberg wrote a letter to workers.

Some of the most difficult changes we've made in Meta's history are being shared today. More than 11,000 of our talented employees will be let go as a result of my decision. In order to become a more efficient company, we are cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through the first quarter.

I want to make sure we are held accountable for how we got here. I am sorry to those who have been impacted by this.

We don't know how we got here.

The world quickly moved online at the start of Covid and the surge of e- commerce led to outsized revenue growth. Many people thought this would continue after the epidemic ended. I decided to increase our investment. The way this played out was not what I was expecting. The macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be lower than I had anticipated. I'm responsible for getting this wrong.

We need to become more efficient. Our long-term vision for the metaverse is one of the reasons why we have shifted more of our resources to that area. Shrinking our real estate footprint is one of the ways we've cut costs. Teams are being restructured to increase efficiency. I made the difficult decision to let people go because we won't bring our expenses in line with our revenue growth.

What will this do?

We will do everything we can to support you through this, even though there is no good way to do a layoff.

The email will let you know what this means for you. Every affected employee will have the chance to speak with someone after that to get their questions answered.

In the US, there are some details.

• Severance. We will pay 16 weeks of base pay plus two additional weeks for every year of service, with no cap.
• PTO. We’ll pay for all remaining PTO time.
• RSU vesting. Everyone impacted will receive their November 15, 2022 vesting.
• Health insurance. We’ll cover the cost of healthcare for people and their families for six months.
• Career services. We’ll provide three months of career support with an external vendor, including early access to unpublished job leads.
• Immigration support. I know this is especially difficult if you’re here on a visa. There’s a notice period before termination and some visa grace periods, which means everyone will have time to make plans and work through their immigration status. We have dedicated immigration specialists to help guide you based on what you and your family need. 

We will follow up with processes that take into account local employment laws outside of the US.

Due to the amount of access to sensitive information, we decided to remove access to most Meta systems. We keep email addresses active so we can say goodbye.

Some teams will be affected more by the reductions than others. We're going to hire fewer people next year. The business teams are being restructured more dramatically. The work these groups have done is not reflected in this. Over the next couple of days, the leaders of each group will talk about what this means for your team.

The teammates who will be leaving us are talented and passionate and have made an impact on our company and community. I am grateful for the help that you have given to Meta. You will go on to do great work elsewhere.

We are making other changes.

We decided to rein in other costs before letting teammates go because I view layoffs as a last resort. This will result in a cultural shift in how we operate. We will roll out more cost-cutting changes in the coming months.

We are extending our hiring freeze through the first quarter. I will be watching our business performance, operational efficiency, and other macroeconomic factors to see if we should resume hiring. The ability to control our cost structure will be given by this. It will help us achieve a more efficient cost structure.

I am currently reviewing our infrastructure spending. We want to become even more efficient as we build our infrastructure. Our infrastructure is an advantage for Meta and we can achieve this while spending less.

Our revenue outlook is lower than we anticipated, and we want to make sure we are operating efficiently across both Family of Apps and Reality Labs.

What are we going to do next?

There is no way around it. I would like to thank you for everything you have done here. Without your hard work we wouldn't be where we are today.

I am aware that this is a difficult time for you as well. Many of you feel uncertain about the future as we say goodbye to people we have worked with. These decisions are being made to make sure our future is strong.

We are underestimated as a company. Billions of people use our services to connect, and our communities continue to grow. The future of social connection and the next computing platform will be defined by the technology we develop. We do historic work. If we work efficiently, we will emerge from this downturn stronger and more resilient than ever.

We will discuss how we will operate as a streamlined organization to achieve our priorities. I would like to say how thankful I am to those of you who are leaving for the sake of our mission.

The man is Mark.

Meta needs to return to their core advertising business.