By
Bhushan Akolkar
April 25th, 2024
Meta is reportedly working towards additional layoffs that could impact another set of thousands of employees. This comes after the technology company laid off 13% of its workers in November 2022 as part of its cost-cutting efforts.
On November 9, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a letter shared with Meta Platfroms’ staff that more than 11,000 people would be forced to leave as the company endeavors to become more efficient by reducing its expenses and freezing hiring through Q1 2023. Indeed, Meta was passing through tough times that also raised concerns from investors worried about its increasing costs and fees. Its online advertising business had to deal with the tough digital advertising market.
At the same time, increased competition from the popular video-sharing platform TikTok contributed to the challenges. The technology company’s expenses grew 19% YoY to $22.1 billion in Q3 2023. During the same period, Meta’s sales also dropped 4% in addition to a 46% plunge YoY in its operating income.
Meta Is Set for Additional Layoffs
After the initial 13% layoffs, Bloomberg revealed that Meta could dismiss the additional workers as early as this week. This would represent the second major layoff by the company within four months. Sources noted that the cut is fueled by financial targets, different from the “flattening” that the technology company claimed during the first firing. In addition, the people familiar with the internal after said that meta could finalize the second phase of layoff. Some people have already been selected to work on the plan and should present a report to Zuckerberg as soon as possible.
While Meta said in November that it would freeze hiring through Q1, the company added that certain factors could determine recruitment resumption. The CEO said he would closely monitor the company’s operational efficiency, business performance, and other macroeconomic factors. According to Zuckerberg, reducing headcounts and cutting costs generally is to help Meta control expenses should the current economic downturn persist.
Meta had earlier declared 2023 as the “Year of Efficiency” ahead of the latest report on additional layoffs. He noted that the focus is to become a stronger and more agile organization. As part of the rising development aimed at greater efficiency this year, the social network giant plans to cut projects that are not performing or are no longer crucial. Also, it plans on “removing layers of middle management to make decisions faster.”
At premarket trading, Meta is up 1.84% to $188.30 after gaining over 9% in the last five days. In addition, Meta has increased by 51.03% over the past month and grew almost 54% since the beginning of the year.