Meta has initiated its third round of layoffs, marking another significant step in the company’s cost-cutting strategy. Following a previous round of job cuts in April that primarily impacted technical roles, this latest wave targets employees within Meta’s business groups.
With approximately 10,000 positions set to be eliminated between April and May, these cuts come on the heels of the company’s initial round of layoffs in November, which affected a staggering 11,000 workers.
These job reductions were anticipated, as Meta’s CEO and founder, Mark Zuckerberg, announced in a March blog post his plan to slash 10,000 jobs over two rounds of layoffs in late April and late May. It is worth noting that the company had already shed 11,000 positions in November. The recent layoffs predominantly impacted business-related roles, while the April cuts primarily affected the tech teams.
Additionally, Meta halted the recruitment process for approximately 5,000 open positions. Consequently, the total number of employees who have lost their jobs at Meta stands at around 21,000, resulting in a reduction of the company’s global workforce by approximately one-quarter since November, when the company, formerly known as Facebook, boasted around 87,000 employees.
These measures are part of Meta’s overarching “Year of Efficiency” initiative, which seeks to restructure the company extensively in order to generate cost savings and flatten the organisational structure. Meta employees from various departments, including user experience, marketing, recruiting, and engineering, took to LinkedIn to share news of their layoffs on Wednesday, corroborating an earlier report by Reuters.
Zuckerberg had presented this year as a period of necessary efficiency improvements for Meta, aiming to create a leaner and more agile company in the face of a challenging economy and a weakened digital advertising market.
In March, he stated, “As I’ve talked about efficiency this year, I’ve said that part of our work will involve removing jobs—and that will be in service of both building a leaner, more technical company and improving our business performance to enable our long-term vision.”
The wave of layoffs at Meta has inevitably resulted in a noticeable decline in employee morale. For months, workers have anxiously awaited news of potential job cuts, adding further stress to an already challenging situation. In some cases, employees may face the additional burden of losing healthcare coverage or work visas.
In other Meta-related news, the company has entered into an agreement to sell Giphy, the popular animated GIF search engine, to Shutterstock for a sum of “$53 million of net cash paid at closing, inclusive of working capital.” The company had acquired Giphy for $400 million three years ago; however, a UK regulator later ordered the company to divest itself of Giphy due to anticompetition concerns. The Competition and Markets Authority specifically highlighted that the acquisition could potentially limit access to Giphy’s content for competitors such as Snapchat and Twitter.
Furthermore, Meta recently incurred a hefty fine of $1.3 billion (€1.2 billion) for violating European Union data protection regulations. The company was also instructed to cease the transfer of data collected from Facebook users in Europe to the United States. Additionally, Meta is required to bring its data transfers into compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
As Meta continues its restructuring efforts, Innovation Village will closely observe the company’s progress in achieving its efficiency goals while navigating the evolving landscape of technology and digital platforms.
