Meta Australia braces for impact of global job cuts

Facebook’s parent company Meta will axe jobs in Australia by the end of the week as part of its billionaire founder Mark Zuckerberg’s efforts to reduce costs across the business.

Meta is consulting local employees and the scale of cuts will be known once those discussions are finished, people familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity to speak about internal processes, said. Meta Australia does not disclose staff numbers, but a LinkedIn search shows there are more than 180.

It is unclear which roles will be affected, but globally the worst cuts are in the recruitment and business divisions. The company has also scaled back its news partnerships division recently as it turns its attention to video content. A Meta spokesperson declined to comment.

Zuckerberg announced plans to axe 11,000 jobs – or 13 percent of his workforce – last week, just days after Elon Musk’s Twitter sacked thousands of staff over email. The layoffs, the first in Meta’s 18-year history, were the result of a weakening economy, increased competition and slump in advertising revenue.

“Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected,” Zuckerberg said in a blog post.

In a blog post, Zuckerberg said recruitment would be “disproportionately affected” and flagged a restructure of the “business teams”. People familiar with the talks said the cuts in Australia have been slower due to a requirement to consult affected staff. If a business is considering redundancy of 15 or more staff, it needs to give written notification to Services Australia of the proposed dismissals.

One area where Zuckerberg has cut costs over the past few months is the global news partnerships division, which has become more focused on creating video content. The cuts at Meta were made as the chairmen of Australia’s two largest media companies expressed confidence that they will be able to renegotiate deals with tech giants Google and Meta for use of their news content on the respective websites.

Nine Entertainment Co, publisher of this masthead, and News Corp Australia, owner of The Australian, The Herald Sun and The Daily Telegraph, were among a group of companies to receive millions of dollars from Meta and search giant Google after the federal government introduce laws that would mandate payment for news content.

The news media bargaining code was introduced last year after the competition regulator found there was an imbalance of bargaining power between media companies and digital platforms. However, the rhetoric by both platforms in other markets trying to introduce similar legislative measures has raised questions about the local commitment to renegotiating future deals.

Facebook’s parent company Meta will axe jobs in Australia by the end of the week as part of its billionaire founder Mark Zuckerberg’s efforts to reduce costs across the business.

Meta is consulting local employees and the scale of cuts will be known once those discussions are finished, people familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity to speak about internal processes, said. Meta Australia does not disclose staff numbers, but a LinkedIn search shows there are more than 180.

It is unclear which roles will be affected, but globally the worst cuts are in the recruitment and business divisions. The company has also scaled back its news partnerships division recently as it turns its attention to video content. A Meta spokesperson declined to comment.

Zuckerberg announced plans to axe 11,000 jobs – or 13 percent of his workforce – last week, just days after Elon Musk’s Twitter sacked thousands of staff over email. The layoffs, the first in Meta’s 18-year history, were the result of a weakening economy, increased competition and slump in advertising revenue.

“Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected,” Zuckerberg said in a blog post.

In a blog post, Zuckerberg said recruitment would be “disproportionately affected” and flagged a restructure of the “business teams”. People familiar with the talks said the cuts in Australia have been slower due to a requirement to consult affected staff. If a business is considering redundancy of 15 or more staff, it needs to give written notification to Services Australia of the proposed dismissals.

One area where Zuckerberg has cut costs over the past few months is the global news partnerships division, which has become more focused on creating video content. The cuts at Meta were made as the chairmen of Australia’s two largest media companies expressed confidence that they will be able to renegotiate deals with tech giants Google and Meta for use of their news content on the respective websites.

Nine Entertainment Co, publisher of this masthead, and News Corp Australia, owner of The Australian, The Herald Sun and The Daily Telegraph, were among a group of companies to receive millions of dollars from Meta and search giant Google after the federal government introduce laws that would mandate payment for news content.

The news media bargaining code was introduced last year after the competition regulator found there was an imbalance of bargaining power between media companies and digital platforms. However, the rhetoric by both platforms in other markets trying to introduce similar legislative measures has raised questions about the local commitment to renegotiating future deals.