Meta Layoffs: High-Ranking India Officials Among Employees Who Were Let Go
Two high-ranking Meta executives in India, Avinash Pant, the director of marketing, and Saket Jha Saurabh, the director and head of media partnerships, were also let go.
Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, has implemented another round of job cuts as part of its plan to eliminate 10,000 roles. This is the final phase of a three-part layoff initiative announced in March. Employees from various departments, including marketing, site security, enterprise engineering, program management, content strategy, and corporate communications, took to LinkedIn to inform others about their layoffs, as reported by Reuters.
In addition to these teams, Meta also reduced its workforce in units focused on privacy and integrity, as mentioned in the LinkedIn posts. These job cuts mark the second round of mass layoffs at Meta this year, with over 11,000 employees already let go previously. The company's employee count has now returned to a level similar to mid-2021 after a significant increase in its workforce through hiring initiatives in 2020.
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Despite the layoffs, Meta's shares closed slightly higher in a generally weaker market. The company's stock value has more than doubled in the current year and remains one of the top performers in the S&P 500 index, primarily due to cost-cutting measures and its emphasis on artificial intelligence.
Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, stated in March that the majority of the layoffs would occur in three phases over several months, with most of them being completed by May. However, smaller rounds of layoffs may continue after this period. The recent job cuts have primarily impacted non-engineering roles, highlighting the importance of coding positions at Meta. Zuckerberg has expressed his intention to restructure business teams significantly and restore a more optimal ratio of engineers to other roles.
Even within the technology teams, non-engineering positions such as content design and user experience research have been eliminated to a greater extent, according to executives who spoke at a company town hall meeting after the last round of layoffs in April. During the town hall, Zuckerberg revealed that around 4,000 employees lost their jobs in April, following a smaller reduction in recruiting teams in March.
Meta announced on Wednesday that approximately 490 employees at its international headquarters in Dublin, which accounts for nearly 20 per cent of its Irish workforce, would be affected by the latest cuts. Additionally, two high-ranking executives in India, Avinash Pant, the director of marketing, and Saket Jha Saurabh, the director and head of media partnerships, were also let go. However, they have not yet responded to requests for comment.
Meta's decision to implement these layoffs comes after a period of declining revenue growth, attributed to high inflation and a decrease in digital advertising due to the pandemic's impact on e-commerce. The company has also invested billions of dollars in its Reality Labs unit, focused on the metaverse, which incurred a loss of $13.7 billion in 2022, as well as an infrastructure project to support artificial intelligence development.
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