Social networking and tech giant Meta is apparently preparing for “large-scale layoffs” now among rising costs along with a recent collapse of their share cost.
According to Wall Street Journal (WSJ) set of November. 6 citing people acquainted with the problem, the planned layoffs could impact a large number of employees inside a wide range of divisions across Meta’s 87,000-strong workforce.
It’s not presently understood if the firm’s Reality Labs division, which registered a $3.7 billion reduction in the 3rd quarter, would see staff cuts.
A week ago, Meta Chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg stated that the organization could be focusing its investment on “a few high-priority growth areas,” including its artificial intelligence (AI) Discovery Engine and it is advertisement and business messaging platforms additionally towards the metaverse, stating:
“So which means some teams will grow meaningfully, but many other teams will remain flat or shrink within the the coming year […] In aggregate, we predict to finish 2023 as either roughly exactly the same size, or perhaps a slightly smaller sized organization than we’re today.”
Throughout the earnings call, the millionaire entrepreneur made an appearance to double lower around the firm’s investments during these areas, saying he believes they’re “on the best track using these investments” and really should “keep investing heavily during these areas.”
Related: Zuckerberg’s $100B metaverse gamble is ‘super-sized and terrifying’ — Shareholder
The report only comes per week after Meta reported its third-quarter earnings, which missed revenue expectations and saw a boost in its operating costs. Its stock cost also required a battering, with shares in Meta presently costing $90.79 — lower 7.56% during the last 5 days and 73.19% year-on-year, according to Yahoo Finance.
The organization seems to be positively hiring into its metaverse division regardless, using its listing of job openings revealing 38 of their 413 listings are based on augmented reality and virtual reality.
Cointelegraph has arrived at to Meta for clarification and whether there’d be any changes to the metaverse division but didn’t get an immediate response.