Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told company executives that layoffs would begin Wednesday morning, laying the blame for the company’s missteps at his own feet, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
Zuckerberg claimed that he was too optimistic about the company’s growth and said he was accountable for decisions that led to overstaffing at the social media giant, the WSJ reported Tuesday, citing anonymous sources familiar with a meeting between Zuckerberg and Meta executives. Layoffs are anticipated to affect several thousand employees and would represent the first large-scale cut at one of Big Tech’s most prominent companies, which employed more than 87,000 people as of September. (RELATED: Elon Musk’s Twitter Begins Mass Layoffs: ‘Incredibly Challenging)
“This is a sad moment, and there’s no way around that,” Zuckerberg said in a Wednesday email to employees announcing the layoffs, according to the WSJ Wednesday. “I got this wrong and I take responsibility for that.”
While the layoff of 11,000 employees will impact the whole company, recruiting and business teams were hardest hit as the company focused on reducing jobs that overlapped, the WSJ reported, citing sources familiar. Employees will receive a minimum of 16 weeks of salary as severance, with 2 additional weeks per year working for Meta, as well as stock options set to vest in November.
Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg attend the 2020 Breakthrough Prize Red Carpet at NASA Ames Research Center on November 03, 2019 in Mountain View, California. (Photo by Ian Tuttle/Getty Images for Breakthrough Prize )
The cuts, expected to be announced at 6 a.m. EST Wednesday, come as Zuckerberg continues to spend billions on virtual reality programs that investors are increasingly losing confidence in. Meta stock is down 70% on the year as TikTok choked out competitors in the social-media market and new privacy rules for apps on Apple devices limited Meta’s ability to target ads to users, according to the WSJ .
On Nov. 3, ridesharing app Lyft and payment processing startup Stripe announced plans to cut 13% and 14% of their staff respectively, each citing recession concerns as a motivating factor for the headcount reductions. Elon Musk’s Twitter began layoffs on Nov. 4 that are estimated to have impacted roughly half the company.
Meta declined a Daily Caller News Foundation request for comment.
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