Mark Zuckerberg admits he was wrong as he fires 11,000 employees after spending $15bn on Metaverse
Topics: US News, News, Technology, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg
Joe Harker
Featured Image Credit: dpa picture alliance/Alamy Stock Photo/Meta
Topics: US News, News, Technology, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg
Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg has announced he's firing 11,000 of his staff in an effort to create a 'leaner and more efficient company'.
The Facebook founder announced that he'd sent a message to all of his staff talking about the 'difficult challenges' facing the company.
Those challenges were going to come in the form of laying off about 11,000 staff, or around 13 percent of Meta's total workforce.
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These layoffs come at a time when Zuckerberg has spent around $15 billion on the Metaverse, his virtual reality pet project which hasn't really done much beyond attract criticism and hold the occasional cartoon meeting with one of his staff.
Zuckerberg also announced that a hiring freeze would be in effect into the new year, making it unlikely that any of those suddenly without employment would soon find themselves back in the company.
He said he would 'take accountability for these decisions' and said he was 'especially sorry to those impacted'.
Those getting laid off will be in line for 16 weeks severance pay, along with two extra weeks for every year they've been working for Meta.
Attempting to explain why a company as large as Meta was having to shed 11,000 people, Zuckerberg claimed that the coronavirus pandemic was one of the main reasons behind it all.
However, while many companies suffered through Covid-19 and had to make cutbacks accordingly, Zuckerberg said the pandemic led to a 'surge of e-commerce' and 'outsized revenue growth' which made a lot of money for Meta.
He wrote that the surge they received from the pandemic meant they thought they'd be getting a 'permanent acceleration' to their revenues, but that turned out to be wrong.
Having spent lots of money while they were making loads of it during Covid, now the revenues are down (and Zuckerberg has spent $15 billion on the Metaverse which doesn't really do anything) they've got to find a way to cut costs, which means employee heads will roll.
Financially speaking, things haven't been great for Zuckerberg recently.
He started 2022 with a net worth of around $125 billion, but now he's down to less than half that with a value of about $55 billion... though that's still a pretty cushy amount.
Zuckerberg has also dropped out of the list of top 10 wealthiest Americans for the first time in several years,
Meta aren't the only major technology company shedding employees as part of a cost cutting drive, with social media rival Twitter getting rid of a bunch of staff after the arrival of new boss Elon Musk.
However, some of those being let go from Twitter have since been asked if they could please forget about being fired and come back to their old jobs as they were apparently laid off by mistake.
UNILAD has contacted Meta for comment and were directed back to Zuckerberg's message to Meta employees.