Is Meta planning to sack staff? Here's what reports say

Digital media conglomerate Meta which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp is expected to cut down its start and shuffle departments in the coming months to reduce costs by 10%. Per media reports, the emphasis on reducing costs drastically gained traction after the company announced that CEO Mark Zuckerberg had lost over $71 billion this year.

The social media powerhouse will lay off its employees following the reshuffle. However, reports have confirmed that Meta will allow the affected employees to apply for other openings in the company in a 30-day window. The company was also reportedly adopting a “ruthless prioritization” policy internally and planning to freeze hiring wherever necessary. Per a Daily Mail report, Meta currently had 83,553 employees at the end of Q2 of 2022-23, up by 32% from the previous year.




Facebook registered a zero percent growth in users in February 2022, following which the company’s stock witnessed a sharp decline. The company is yet to recover from the initial fall, with the Meta stock falling 58% YTD and Zuckerberg’s personal fortune plummeting steadily since the launch of Meta, which now holds Facebook and other social media platforms under its umbrella. Zuckerberg, per reports, owns 350 million shares of Meta, which is almost all of his wealth.

According to Bloomberg, most of the top billionaires lost a significant chunk of their wealth in 2022. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos lost about 46 billion dollars, while Larry Page, co-founder of Google, last about $34 billion during the same period. Meta’s peers also saw sharp declines, though not as much as it did. Apple plummeted by 14%, Amazon by 26%, and Alphabet, which owns Google, by 29%.

The decline in the stocks of major technology conglomerates is an indicator of a looming global financial crisis, which many experts have been predicting for a few years. Gautam Adani of the Adani Group was the only business mogul to have a stupendous rise during this period. The Indian tycoon added over $65 billion to his wealth in 2022, making him the second richest man in the world.

FAQs

• How many employees does Meta have?
Meta employed 83,553 individuals by the end of the second quarter of 2022, 32% more than what it did last year.

• How much wealth did Mark Zuckerberg lose in 2022?
Per Bloomberg, Zuckerberg lost about $71 billion in 2022, pushing him down to the 14th position on the global rich list.