Meta to cut 11,000 jobs as it looks to slash costs, affirms revenue outlook

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Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) plans to cut 11K jobs, about 13% of its workforce, the company said in a message to employees Wednesday.

The message from CEO Mark Zuckerberg, reproduced in an SEC filing, also reaffirmed its Q4 revenue outlook.

META jumped 4% in premarket trading.

The major layoffs had been expected this week.

"Today I'm sharing some of the most difficult changes we've made in Meta's history," Zuckerberg said. "I've decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13% and let more than 11,000 of our talented employees go."

"We are also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through Q1," he added. "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."

"The 2022 and 2023 expense outlooks provided on the third quarter 2022 earnings conference call contemplated the financial impact of the layoff announced today, which is anticipated to impact approximately 11,000 of our employees across our Family of Apps and Reality Labs segments," the Facebook parent said.

Q4 revenue outlook of $30B to $32.5B is unchanged. That's in line with analysts' consensus estimates of about $31.6B.

SA contributor OJRB Investment Research said today this is Meta's most important period in its history as a public company.