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.
Meta already cut about 13 percent 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.” © Bloomberg