Meta lays off more than 11 employees from Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp

A Meta, holding company that controls the Facebook, Instagram e WhatsApp, announced a mass layoff earlier this Wednesday (9). In all, 11 employees were terminated from the company, a number that corresponds to around 13% of the total number of employees in the company. The statement was given by the CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, in a letter sent to employees.

“Today I'm sharing some of the toughest changes we've made in Meta's history. I decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13% and lay off over 11 of our talented employees. We are also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company, cutting costs and extending the hiring break through Q2023 XNUMX″

Mark Zuckerberg

The measure had already been announced the day before by Zuckerberg, during a meeting with company executives. During the meeting, the CEO said he was responsible for the company's mistakes and that his over-optimism about growth had led to overstaffing, according to sources familiar with the meeting.

In Brazil, employees were informed of the dismissal by email, which reached the Inbox shortly after the official statement issued by the company on the website, according to what was found by the Estadão.

In total, the Meta had around 87 employees worldwide. This is the largest dismissal recorded by the company to date. In addition to cutting staff, the CEO said that new hires will remain frozen and that he will announce new measures to cut spending soon.

drop in profits

A Meta pointed to the economic scenario as the main factor in his decision, but international investors are also cautious in the face of company spending and threats to the group's main business, social networks, with new restrictions to reduce the ability of these platforms to track users for target ads.

This year, the Meta faced a drop of more than 70% in the value of its shares, after announcing the decrease in the number of active users of the Facebook🇧🇷 At the time, this represented the first drop in more than 18 years, a reflection of the drop in popularity of the social network among the younger audience, which began to migrate to neighboring social networks, such as Instagram e TikTok.

As a result, the company's profit fell by half in the third quarter of 2022 (about 52% compared to the same period last year), reaching US$ 4,4 billion. The numbers were released in a context of stagnation in the number of users and reduction in the company's revenue from advertising.

Volume of spending on the metaverse

The investments made by Meta with its metaverse project also had an impact on the company's financial health. According to international sources, so far, the reality labs, the metaverse unit, resulted in a loss of $9,44 billion in revenue, up from $10 billion last year. And the company projects that losses will grow even more in 2023. The expectation is that profits will only be truly reaped in ten years!

Despite the problems, Zuckerberg believes that good results will follow. “I believe the stricter prioritization, discipline and efficiency that we are promoting across the organization will help us navigate today's environment and emerge as a still strong company. As always, I am grateful to everyone at Meta for their hard work and to all of you for being on this journey with us.”.

Big techs in crisis and more layoffs

The main companies in the technology sector were impacted by inflation and interest rates in the United States. Among the five largest, only the Apple managed to register profit growth compared to the third quarter of last year. Besides the Meta, others impacted were the ecosystem, which registered a drop of 14,4%, and the A, out of the blue Google which marked -26,5%.

This is the second major mass layoff announcement released in a short amount of time. Last week, the Twitter cut about 3.700 positions after Elon Musk completed the $44 billion purchase of the company. THE Lyft (ride ride app) and the Seagate (hard drive manufacturer) also announced layoffs.

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While the Meta experiencing difficulties, Apple continues to deliver good results. This week, it was announced that Tim Cook's company remains the most valuable in the world. Check the ranking.

Sources: Estadão, The Verge, Business Insider.