Nearly half of Meta job cuts were in technology roles
Facebook owner Meta Platforms told employees on Friday that it would stop developing smart displays and smartwatches and that nearly half of the 11000 jobs it eliminated this week in an unprecedented cost-cutting move were technology roles.
Speaking during an employee townhall meeting heard by Reuters, Meta executives also said they were reorganizing parts of the company, combining a voice and video calling unit with other messaging teams and setting up a new division, Family Foundations, focused on tough engineering problems.
The executives said that the first mass layoff in the social media company's 18-year history affected staffers at every level and on every team, including individuals with high performance ratings.
Overall, 54% of those laid off were in business positions and the rest were in technology roles, Meta human resources chief Lori Goler said. Meta's recruiting team was cut nearly in half, she said.
The executives said further rounds of job cuts were not expected. But other expenses would have to be cut, they said, noting reviews underway about contractors, real estate, computing infrastructure and various products.
Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth, who runs the metaverse-oriented Reality Labs division, told staffers Meta would end its work on Portal smart display devices and on its smartwatches.
Meta had decided earlier this year to stop marketing Portal devices, known for their video calling capabilities, to consumers and focus instead on business sales, Bosworth said.
As the economy declined, executives decided more recently to make "bigger changes," he said.
"It was just going to take so long, and take so much investment to get into the enterprise segment, it felt like the wrong way to invest your
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