META Platforms (META) announced on Tuesday that the company would be cutting 5% of its workforce in preparation for what Mark Zuckerberg referred to as an “intense year”.
News of the cutbacks follows the recent announcement that META was dropping its third-party fact-checking program in favor of “Community Notes.” The Community model is used on Elon Musk’s platform X, where individual users provide more context to posts.
META made small cuts to staffing in late 2024 as the company reassessed a few development departments.
In March 2023, Meta announced a major wave of layoffs. The company cut 10,000 jobs, which followed an even larger reduction of 11,000 positions just months earlier in November 2022.
These drastic measures were driven by CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s “Year of Efficiency” initiative, a strategic push to streamline operations and enhance Meta’s financial performance. That followed two years of increasing the company’s large investments in the Metaverse.
The metaverse is still being developed, but it's not being used as much as originally anticipated. The metaverse has faced setbacks due to consumer reluctance, financial issues, and technological challenges.
Shares of META are nearly 200% higher since the company’s latest cuts to employees and it’s Metaverse development as the company returned to its core businesses.
Today, shares of META are shifting slightly below their 50-day moving average as the stock drops below $600. Shares had been trading at their all-time highs last week ahead of what has turned into a broader market selloff.
META spent three months trading in a range around $575 in late-2024, which is where investors should expect the stock to find support.
Shares of META remain in a long-term bull market trend with a price target of $700.
