Facebook (META) to lay off 11,000, including Reality Labs employees
In a letter released by Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO said the cuts were because 'revenue outlook is lower' and a push to operate more efficiently.
A wave of layoffs has hit Meta (formerly known as Facebook) across a number of departments, including the VR Reality Labs division. According to official statements from the company, 11,000 workers have been selected for employment termination. Mark Zuckerberg directly addressed the move, claiming that the layoffs were due in large part to lowered revenue guidance for its current fiscal year, and a drive to cut costs and boost efficiency as a consequence of that lowered guidance.
Meta published its official statement on the layoffs, along with remarks from CEO Mark Zuckerberg, on November 9, 2022.
“Today I’m sharing some of the most difficult changes we’ve made in Meta’s history,” the statement reads. “I’ve decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13% and let more than 11,000 of our talented employees go. We are also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through Q1.”
Source: Meta
Mark Zuckerberg goes on to address the main reasons why the layoffs are happening in the first place, including a notably lowered guidance on its yearly revenue and performance in quarterly earnings results such as Q3 2022.
“Fundamentally, we’re making all these changes for two reasons: our revenue outlook is lower than we expected at the beginning of this year, and we want to make sure we’re operating efficiently across both Family of Apps and Reality Labs,” Zuckerberg further explained.
In particular, Reality Labs facing layoffs comes as the division has spent several recent fiscal quarters as one of the leading loss contributors to Meta’s bottom line. Expenses for the division were responsible for $3.67 billion in losses on Meta’s Q3 2022 earnings results. Before that, it was noted to have led to $2.8 billion in losses in Q2 2022.
Nonetheless, Meta continues to pump money into its VR endeavors, continuing its work on metaverse applications and hardware, including the Meta Quest Pro and allegedly another upcoming consumer-centered Meta Quest headset. Stay tuned as we continue to follow for further details and updates on Meta and its layoffs.
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