A surge in Meta’s share prices after its strong quarterly results resulted in Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s wealth rising by more than $10 billion, even as reports of layoffs at the social media giant put thousands of people out of work.
Facebook owner Meta fired more than 20,000 people in recent months, citing a downturn in business and worsening global economic conditions. However, in the quarter ending March, Meta made a revenue of $28.65 billion, which was more than 3 percent higher than the same quarter in the previous year. The results also were better than the expectations of Wall Street analysts.
Zuckerberg Eloquent on Future
Meta’s shares on Nasdaq rose 14 percent following the quarterly earnings report to hit its highest close in 15 months. With that, Zuckerberg’s personal wealth rose to $87.3 billion, making him the 12th richest person in the world.
“We had a good quarter and our community continues to grow. Our AI work is driving good results across our apps and business. We’re also becoming more efficient so we can build better products faster and put ourselves in a stronger position to deliver our long term vision,” Zuckerberg said following the announcement of quarterly results.
Massive Layoffs
However, Meta has been trimming jobs in the last several months, saying the company’s outlook was dimming. In the latest round of layoffs, Meta cut as many as 4,000 highly-skilled employees last week.
Reuters
In March, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company would cut 10,000 jobs in the coming months. In November last year Meta laid off 11,000 employees, or 13 per cent of the company.
Google and Microsoft Revenue Rises
Earlier this week, tech giants Alphabet and Microsoft reported higher than expected quarterly revenues and the companies’ shares rose more than 5 and 9 percent respectively on Tuesday. Both the tech leaders announced robust quarterly results after cutting thousands of jobs in recent months.
In January this year, Google CEO Sundar Pichai confirmed in a letter to employees that about 12,000 people will be laid off globally, accounting for more than 6 percent of the total workforce. The cash-rich tech giant also shocked the industry by adopting several other cost-cutting measures like cutting down on free snacks and workout classes for its existing employees.
Reuters
Also in January, Microsoft said it was cutting as many as 11,000 people across many divisions. The job cuts would amount to 5 percent of the workforce of around 220,000 employees, Sky News reported. Another report said in October last year that Microsoft was laying off nearly 1,000 employees across multiple divisions of the company.
Earlier this month, reports said Sundar Pichai took home a whopping compensation of nearly $226 million in 2022. According to the tech giant’s filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Pichai’s compensation included stock awards of about $218 million.
