Meta expected to announce layoffs

Meta is expected to announce layoffs as early as Wednesday morning. Wall Street Journal reports CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on a conference call that the layoffs could be in the thousands.

SAN FRANCISCO - There is another potential round of tech layoffs on the horizon, but this time it's from one of the biggest names in the industry.

Tech analysts are expecting Meta to announce a round of layoffs as soon as Wednesday morning.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the cuts on a call with company executives on Tuesday and that the cuts would likely be in the thousands; possibly one of the biggest round of layoffs this year.

Bob O'Donnell with TECHnalysis Research said the cuts aren't unexpected.

"We've seen a lot of job cuts in the last couple of weeks in particular and Meta has been able to avoid that up til now" said O'Donnell. "But, all the signs pointed toward this being an issue. They're heavily dependent on advertising and that whole advertising market has come down."

Larry Magid from Connectsafely.org said Meta is one of the supporters for his organization and he sits on their safety advisory council.

He said Zuckerberg's big bet on the Metaverse, virtual and augmented reality may pay off in the long run, but in the short term, after a good post-pandemic run, the company has to rightsize for the current environment.

"So that alone is going to impact their ability to sustain the level of growth that they've had, but add to that, they're investing billions in the Metaverse, in something which is unproven and uncertain," said Magid. "That's got investors nervous."

The company is reportedly saying laid-off employees will receive four months salary as severance, Zuckerberg specifically mentioning the recruiting and business teams.

With Meta joining Lyft and Twitter in announcing layoffs, tech analysts say the layoffs now are not the same kind of layoffs seen during the tech busts of the early 2000s.

"The economy is actually doing quite well, as you know unemployment is very low," said Magid. "So, we're going to see jobs for tech workers. I think what's going to happen is that some of these laid off workers are going to wind up somewhere else."

KTVU has also reached out directly to Meta, but has not heard back.