Mark Zuckerberg apologises to Meta staff for sacking 11,000 of them

Mark Zuckerberg has said "sorry" to Meta staff for sacking 11,000 of them.

The Facebook founder, 38, had told hundreds of executives in a call on Tuesday (Nov 8) cuts of around 13 per cent of the company's workforce were to be announced due to soaring running costs and a declining advertising market.

Employees then received confirmation of cuts in a company-wide email which was sent at 6am EST, with staff told they could keep their email addresses for an extra day so they could say goodbye.

Mark's lengthy message to staff said: "Today I'm sharing some of the most difficult changes we've made in Meta's history. I've decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13 per cent 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.

"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.

"At the start of Covid, the world rapidly moved online and the surge of e-commerce led to outsized revenue growth.

"Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended. I did too, so I made the decision to significantly increase our investments.

"Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected. Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I'd expected. I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that."

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Mark went on to say he wanted to make the company "more capital efficient", adding: "There is no good way to do a layoff, but we hope to get all the relevant information to you as quickly as possible and then do whatever we can to support you through this.

"Everyone will get an email soon letting you know what this layoff means for you. After that, every affected employee will have the opportunity to speak with someone to get their questions answered and join information sessions.

"We made the decision to remove access to most Meta systems for people leaving today given the amount of access to sensitive information. But we're keeping email addresses active throughout the day so everyone can say farewell."

Meta said it would pay 16 weeks of base pay plus two additional weeks for every year of service as part of its severance deal.

Mark has channelled more than $36 billion (S$50 billion) into his Metaverse project, but has seen over $30 billion of the cash evaporate in a matter of months, with his net worth said to have lost $88 billion.