Meta prepares to layoff thousands of employees this week: WSJ

Meta intends to cut thousands of employees in the second week of November, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

With over 87,000 employees at Meta, the layoffs could stand to be some of the largest employee reductions at a big tech firm.

These layoffs come two months after Meta implemented a hiring freeze in September. The firm had noted it will whittle costs down 10% in part due to staff reduction.

Meta is not alone in cutting headcount. Bitmex, Dapper Labs and Mythical Games are all web3 firms that laid off employees in the first week of November. Numerous other tech firms have trimmed staff amid a difficult business environment.

Meta has uniquely struggled to make its metaverse-focused business model take off — after doubling down on its metaverse effort since October of 2021. Meta’s metaverse arm Reality Labs saw a loss of $3.7 billion in this year’s third quarter, with a year-to-date loss of $9.4 billion.

The company has also fallen short on user count goals for its flagship Horizon Worlds initiative, according to WSJ. 

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