Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, announced on Wednesday that it will cut about 11,000 jobs, which is roughly 13% of its workforce.
Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement in a letter to employees saying: “I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here. I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted.”
Meta follows fellow tech giant Twitter in announcing mass layoffs, though The New York Times notes that Meta is cutting almost thrice the number of jobs as Twitter. Zuckerberg said that the company misread a surge in users during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was thought to be a permanent increase rather than a temporary bump.
“Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected,” he said. “I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.”
Zuckerberg later said in a call addressing the employees: “You’ve really put your heart and soul into this place. No matter what team you may have worked on, each of you played a role in contributing to the products that billions of people use to connect every day.”
He added: “I’m the founder and CEO. I’m responsible for the health of our company, for our direction and for deciding how we execute that, including things like this. And this was ultimately my call.”
Zuckerberg said this “was one of the hardest calls that I’ve had to make in the 18 years of running the company.”
The move also comes after Meta heavily invested in its new virtual reality space, dubbed the “metaverse,” which has failed to gain widespread popularity.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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