Pitchforks In Menlo Park? Meta Enriches Wall Street Amid Mass Layoffs

Meta Platforms Inc META saw its shares surge by nearly a third amid trimming 13% of its global workforce, announcing in its fourth-quarter earnings call that the recent firing spree may not be over.

What Happened: The Menlo Park, California-based company said its fourth-quarter revenue fell 4% on a year-over-year basis to $32.17 billion but still exceeded forecasts of $31.55 billion.

The results were boosted by Facebook's daily active users, which hit 2 billion for the first time, a 4% increase from the previous year.

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However, the earnings came with a cost, as the company had to lay off over 11,000 employees, or 13% of its global workforce in November.

Zuckerberg blamed the aggressive hiring during the pandemic, which saw unsustainable growth across the entire tech sector. Meta said it spent roughly $3.7 billion on severance and related expenses. The CEO said this year will be the "year of efficiency," and said additional layoffs may be in the pipeline as it begins a $40 billion share buyback program — the company had $14.86 billion in cash at the end of 2022.

The company said it may incur additional restructuring charges as it progresses further in its efficiency efforts, which could total $1 billion this year.

Zuckerberg's metaverse project, developed by Reality Labs, posted an operating loss of $4.28 billion in the fourth quarter, exceeding analyst expectations of $4.36 billion.

Reality Labs generated $727 million in the fourth quarter, but it had a total operating loss of $13.72 billion over the course of last year.

Despite the 4% drop in overall revenue, Meta continued to add users on its social media apps.

Facebook had 2.96 billion monthly active users at the end of the year, while total monthly active users across its app portfolio, including Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Facebook, were 3.74 billion as of Dec. 31.

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