Meta planning thousands of more cuts after widespread layoffs, report says

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

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

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

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has previously indicated that the social networking giant would be concentrating this year on efforts intended to lower the company’s costs, pitching 2023 as the “Year of Efficiency.” He told analysts in February that Meta is focused on “cutting projects that aren’t performing or may no longer be crucial” and that it plans on “removing layers of middle management to make decisions faster.”

The cost-cutting efforts come at a challenging time for the consumer technology company, which said its cost and expenses jumped 22% year-over-year to $25.8 billion during the fourth quarter while overall sales dropped 4% to $32 billion.

Meta’s core online advertising business continues facing hurdles because of factors including a tough digital advertising market, the lingering effects of Apple’s 2021 iOS privacy update and increased competition from the ByteDance-owned TikTok.

Meanwhile, the company continues to heavily invest 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 reality and augmented reality technologies needed for the metaverse, brought in $727 million in revenue during the fourth quarter, but also recorded a $4.28 billion operating loss.

Zuckerberg has said that he would “take accountability” for the company’s previously announced cost-cutting plans, saying that he views layoffs “as a last resort.”

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

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