Meta declares great quarter after layoffs, boosting Mark Zuckerberg's wealth by $10 billion
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Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, has seen a significant increase in his net worth due to a 14% rise in the company's shares. According to Bloomberg, his net worth has surged by $10.2 billion, propelling him to the 12th position on the Billionaires Index.
After cutting 21,000 jobs and reducing expenses, Meta experienced strong profit growth in Q1 2023. The company earned a net profit of $5.7 billion, a 22.7% increase from the previous year.
Zuckerberg commented on Meta's strong performance, stating that their community is growing and their AI work is yielding positive results. It is believed that his wealth is primarily tied to his ownership of a 12.8 per cent stake in Meta, which is the parent company of Facebook.
According to a Bloomberg report, Mark Zuckerberg's net worth has now increased to $87.3 billion, reaching its highest point in over a year. This surge in wealth has helped him recover from the loss he faced in 2022, when his net worth fell to $71 billion due to a decline in Meta's stock by 26 per cent, resulting in a $29 billion loss.
This decline had also caused a $200 billion decrease in the social media company's market capitalisation.
Despite the growth in profits, Meta continues to implement cost-cutting measures. The company has already conducted two rounds of layoffs, and now it has been reported that they are also letting go of employees in technical roles such as user experience, software engineering, graphics programming, among others. A spokesperson from Meta has confirmed the new layoffs to CNBC.
According to a source cited by CNBC, a worker who was laid off mentioned that product-facing teams were affected by the recent rounds of layoffs at Meta. The company is also reportedly planning to lay off employees in business-facing roles, such as finance, legal, and HR, in May of this year. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has previously apologised for the layoffs in an email sent to affected employees.
Zuckerberg had previously mentioned that Meta announced layoffs due to several reasons, including the economic slowdown and slow growth of the company, resulting in low revenue growth. The tech giant also admitted to over-hiring in the past few years to meet business needs in an email to impacted employees.