(PresidentialWire.com)- According to Reuters, Facebook (now known as Meta) recently issued a warning to its primary metaverse development division, known as Reality Labs, instructing them to anticipate and prepare for layoffs.
During the weekly question and answer session that Reality Labs hosts, Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth informed the staff members that they should anticipate the changes announced within the next week.
Bosworth informed staff members that the division could not afford to continue developing certain projects and that other projects would be postponed. A spokesperson for the company confirmed this; however, the spokesperson did not specify which products were being put on hold. As part of the reorganization, the company does not intend to terminate any of its employees, according to the spokesperson for the company.
In the wake of a significant drop in Facebook users earlier this year, which resulted in a steep decline in the company’s share price, Facebook informed investors that the company would be cutting costs beginning in 2022.
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, announced during an earnings call that the company intended to “slow the pace” of some longer-term investments in its business platform, artificial intelligence infrastructure, and Reality Labs.
After estimating that its total expenses for 2022 would range between $90 billion and $95 billion, Facebook has revised those projections downward, bringing them down to between $87 billion and $92 billion. As Facebook works to develop its metaverse virtual platform further, a significant focus of its efforts has been directed toward Reality Labs.
The creation of the company’s virtual and augmented reality products and its smart glasses and Portal video-calling devices falls under the purview of this division. Over 13,000 new employees were brought on board by the company in the course of the previous year, and almost 6,000 more were brought on board during the first three months of this year.
However, the division has always incurred more expenses than it has generated in revenue, suffering a loss of 10.2 billion dollars in 2021 and another 3 billion dollars in the first quarter of this year.
It’s been a tough 2022 for Big Tech.
