Meta layoffs to hit thousand in global performance purge
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The news: Meta will begin company-wide layoffs on Monday, cutting thousands of jobs as it shifts focus to artificial intelligence. The Facebook owner will start notifying affected employees from Monday 5 am local time worldwide, according to internal memos seen by Reuters and Business Insider.
The context: The company had previously said the cuts will target about 5% of the “lowest performers”. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has pushed for a leaner company, telling staff he would "raise the bar" and move quickly to remove low performers.
Employees in Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands exempt due to local regulations, according to the reports. Affected staff will receive severance details via email and lose access to company systems within an hour.
Meta is also expediting hiring for machine learning engineers and other "business critical" roles between 11 February and 13 March, Reuters said.
Meanwhile, Meta is reorganising divisions, merging Facebook and Messenger under Facebook chief Tom Alison and moving Messenger head Loredana Crisan to the generative AI group.
Reality Labs, which has lost nearly USD60 billion since 2020, is being more tightly integrated with Meta’s main business.
The sources: Reuters, Business Insider
