Meta prepares more layoffs across Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram

Meta Platforms Inc. is set to commence companywide layoffs on Wednesday as it restructures teams and works toward founder Mark Zuckerberg’s goal of greater efficiency.

The Facebook parent company notified managers to prepare to announce job cuts on Wednesday, via a memo seen by Bloomberg News. It indicates Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Reality Labs — which houses the firm’s virtual reality efforts and Quest hardware — will all be impacted. The move is part of a cost-cutting push that will eventually whittle away 10,000 positions at the company, as announced by Zuckerberg in March. A further round of cuts is set to follow in May, Bloomberg reports.

Meta already cut about 13 per cent of its workforce, or about 11,000 jobs, in November. It also extended a hiring freeze through the first quarter, which has been punctuated by job and cost cuts by other Silicon Valley businesses. Zuckerberg’s comments have suggested that the company would aim to become more lean and rebalance its ratio of technologists and engineers to business and administrative staff.

The memo circulated to managers indicates that teams will be reorganized and various remaining employees will be reassigned to work under new managers.

Meta will ask all North America employees who can work from home to do so on Wednesday, in order to have time to process the news, the document said.

A company spokesperson declined to comment, pointing to Zuckerberg’s “year of efficiency” post in March that said “we expect to announce restructurings and layoffs in our tech groups in late April, and then our business groups in late May.”