Meta Platforms Inc. (META) plans to start a major layoff this week, according to people familiar with the matter. Tech companies that had grown rapidly during the previous Covid-19 pandemic have been cutting staff recently, and Meta’s layoffs may be among the biggest.
The layoffs, announced as early as Wednesday, are expected to affect thousands of employees, the people said. According to information previously released by Meta, the company had more than 87,000 employees at the end of September. Meta has told employees to cancel non-essential travel starting this week, these people said.
The planned cuts would be the first major layoffs in the company’s 18-year history. While Meta’s layoffs are smaller than Twitter Inc. (TWTR), which announced last week that it was laying off about half of its workforce, Meta’s potential workforce reduction is expected to be the largest of any big tech company as the tech industry tightens its spending this year.
A Meta spokesman declined to comment. The spokesperson suggested that The Wall Street Journal (The…