Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed employee concerns in a letter after the company terminated over 11,000 employees and enacted a hiring freeze.

Video Transcript

- Let's get you up to speed now on the layoffs rocking the tech world today. Shares of Meta are actually surging on news from Mark Zuckerberg, who announced it will cut company headcount by 11,000 employees. That's about 13% of the company, Zuckerberg writing in a letter to employees, quote, "We are also taking a number of steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through Q1,"

Now, Meta had more than 87,000 employees at the end of September, that number dramatically rising, of course, during the pandemic. Zuckerberg continued in this letter, "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."

Now, shares of Meta down nearly 70% this year, slashing the company's market cap from more than $1 trillion to just over $273 billion. Today you can see the shares up about 5.5%. Investors do like the cost cutting, though many feel those cuts are going to have to get a lot steeper in the months and years ahead as we approach the metaverse.