Meta Planning: Thousands More Cuts After Widespread Layoffs: Report

Meta is planning another round of layoffs that could affect thousands of workers, according to Bloomberg News a report Posted Monday evening.

Job cuts could begin this week and represent an additional round of layoffs, adding to the 13% of Meta workers laid off as part of a major cost-cutting plan announced in November.

A Meta spokesperson declined to comment to CNBC about the report.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, earlier indicated that this year the social networking giant will focus on efforts to reduce the company’s costs, calling 2023 “the year of efficiency.” He told analysts in February that Meta is focused on “cutting out projects that are not performing or may no longer be critical” and that it plans to “remove layers of middle management for faster decision-making.”

The cost-cutting effort comes at a difficult time for the consumer technology company, which said cost and expenses jumped 22% year over year to $25.8 billion during the fourth quarter while total sales fell 4% to $32 billion.

The primary online advertising Meta continues to face hurdles due to factors including a tough digital ad market, the ongoing effects of Apple’s iOS 2021 privacy update and increased competition from ByteDance-owned TikTok.

Meanwhile, the company continues to invest heavily in developing the metaverse, which Meta believes could represent the next frontier for mainstream computing. The company’s Reality Labs division, which is tasked with building the virtual and augmented reality technologies needed for the metaverse, generated $727 million in revenue during the fourth quarter, but also posted an operating loss of $4.28 billion.

Zuckerberg said he would “take responsibility” for the company’s previously announced cost-cutting plans, saying he considered layoffs a “last resort.”

“We’re restructuring teams to increase our efficiency,” Zuckerberg said last fall when Meta announced layoffs. “But these actions alone will not bring our expenses in line with our revenue growth, so I also made the difficult decision to let people go.”

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