Facebook parent company Meta to lay off more than 11,000 employees

Facebook parent company Meta to lay off more than 11,000 employees

Facebook parent company Meta will lay off more than 11,000 employees, about 13% of its workforce, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Wednesday.

In a message to employees, Zuckerberg said the company plans to take additional steps along with the layoffs "to become a leaner and more efficient company."

"The teammates who will be leaving us are talented and passionate, and have made an important impact on our company and community," Zuckerberg wrote. "Each of you have helped make Meta a success, and I’m grateful for it."

Zuckerberg said Meta significantly increased investments, believing surges in e-commerce and people shifting online during the pandemic would remain high. 

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"Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected," he said. "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. I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that."

Zuckerberg said Meta also would put in place other cost-cutting measures, including shrinking the company's real estate footprint and maintaining a hiring freeze through the first quarter of 2023. 

Shares of Meta were up more than 3% in premarket trading.

In a third-quarter earnings call last month, Zuckerberg had said he expected Meta to enter 2023 with roughly the same headcount.