Amid company-wide layoffs, Meta is scaling back its office spaces in New York’s Hudson Yards, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. The decision to return its two towers in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards comes as the media company explores options for cutting costs, initiating a hiring freeze and tightening its workforce.
In 2019, Meta agreed to rent more than 1.5 million square feet of space among three Hudson Yards towers, Bloomberg noted. In July, Meta halted further construction of a Hudson Yards office as it reconsidered its New York real estate. Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton confirmed that the company is subleasing a portion of 50 Hudson Yards.
As many companies faced pivots throughout the past two and a half years of remote work, businesses have had to switch gears and reconsider the role of the office. “…we are prioritizing making focused, balanced investments to support our most strategic long-term priorities and lead the way in creating the workplace of the future. Our aim is to build a best-in-class remote work experience to help everyone do the best work of their careers no matter where they are,” Clayton said in a statement.
The company expects to lose about $2 billion on office consolidation, according to Bloomberg, which cited Meta’s third-quarter earnings call.
In early November, Meta laid off more than 11,000 employees, or about 13 percent of its workforce. This follows weekend reports that Facebook’s parent company was preparing for mass layoffs.
The social networking giant currently employs about 87,000 people, and Wednesday’s layoffs represent the first large-scale workforce reduction in the company’s 18-year history. Social media rival Twitter was hit with layoffs last week under new owner Elon Musk, with around half of its 7,500 workers losing their jobs.
In a letter to employees, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company is reducing its budget, cutting back on real estate and extending its hiring freeze until March.
He blamed the cuts on the company’s rapid growth during the pandemic, when increased online commerce resulted in revenue growth. He had believed this would continue and increased the company’s spending.
“Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected,” he wrote. “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.”
In July, Meta reported its first-ever revenue drop and revealed disappointing third-quarter results last month as ad sales shrank. Meta’s traditional social media business has faced fierce competition in the form of short-form video app TikTok.
The company’s financial problems also follow Zuckerberg’s attempt to shift toward a new business: building the metaverse, a virtual world where Zuckerberg believes people will connect with others. In October 2021, the Facebook renamed itself Meta to reflect this.
