Meta Platforms Inc.
META,
Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg told employees Wednesday that he planned to lay off about 13% of the social-media company’s employee base as Meta works to become “leaner.” The layoffs will affect more than 11,000 employees. Zuckerberg admitted that he “made the decision to significantly increase our investments” after the pandemic brought surging e-commerce growth, but a sustained acceleration in e-commerce “did not play out” the way he expected. “Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected,” he said. “I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.” In addition to conducting broad layoffs, Zuckerberg plans to extend the company’s hiring freeze through the first quarter. Meta shares are up 4% after the announcement, but they’ve declined 71% over the past 12 months as the S&P 500
SPX,
has fallen 52%.
