Grace Dean

<ul><li>Meta is cutting hiring and laying off staff to trim costs,&nbsp;CFO David Wehner said Wednesday.</li><li>Meta's headcount will remain roughly flat between now and the end of 2023, he said.</li><li>But Meta will continue pumping billions into its metaverse business, execs said Wednesday.</li></ul>

"We expect hiring to slow dramatically going forward," CFO David Wehner said in Meta's third-quarter earnings call. "We are holding some teams flat in terms of headcount, shrinking others, and investing headcount growth only in our highest priorities."

Meta expects its headcount to remain roughly flat between now and the end of 2023, Wehner said. The company had 87,314 employees as of September 30, a 28% increase year-over-year, according to its third-quarter earnings report, published Wednesday.

Some Meta employees <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-meta-q3-earnings-confident-good-direction-metaverse-facebook-2022-10">previously told Insider</a> they were concerned about layoffs, and that some staff had started making contingency plans.

Wehner said Meta's pace of hiring had slowed in the third quarter, with 3,700 net new hires compared with 5,700 in the second quarter. New hires were largely concentrated in technical and senior roles, Susan Li, Meta's VP of finance and incoming CFO, said.

<h2>Meta's metaverse will keep burning cash</h2>

Meta's third-quarter net income crashed&nbsp;<a href="https://investor.fb.com/home/default.aspx">52%</a> year-on-year, to $4.4 billion, and its operating margin plummeted from 36% to 20%. The company on Wednesday announced a series of measures to cut costs as it reported its second consecutive quarter of falling revenue.

"We are making significant changes across the board to operate more efficiently," Wehner said. The company had "increased scrutiny" on all areas of operating expenses, he said, including <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-office-space-employees-remote-work-from-home-zuckerberg-2022-10">reducing its office footprint</a>.

Reality Labs, the Meta division that houses its metaverse and virtual-reality businesses, reported third-quarter revenue of $285 million – a drop of almost half compared with the same period in 2021. Wehner attributed this to lower sales of its Quest 2 VR headset.

Reality Labs made an operating loss of $10.2 billion in 2021 and has reported $9.4 billion in operating losses so far this year.

Nonetheless, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-doubles-down-on-metaverse-spending-despite-calls-cut-costs-2022-10">the division's expenses will "increase meaningfully" in 2023</a>, Zuckerberg said in Wednesday's earnings call, with the "biggest drivers" being the launch of a new Quest headset and the first full-year salaries of staff hired this year.

"We do anticipate that Reality Labs operating losses in 2023 will grow significantly year-over-year," Wehner said. "Beyond 2023, we expect to pace Reality Labs investments such that we can achieve our goal of growing overall company operating income in the long run."

Zuckerberg said Wednesday he's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-meta-q3-earnings-confident-good-direction-metaverse-facebook-2022-10">"pretty confident"</a> the company is heading "in a good direction."

Meta has been under pressure from Wall Street to reduce spending, especially on its metaverse projects. On Tuesday, the CEO of Altimeter Capital, which owns hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of Meta shares, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-mark-zuckerberg-metaverse-losses-facebook-brad-gerstner-open-letter-2022-10">urged the social-media company to cut back on its metaverse investments and reduce its headcount by at least 20%</a>, saying it had "lost the confidence of investors."

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.Photo by Sven Hoppe/Picture Alliance via Getty Images

Meta is cutting hiring and laying off workers to reduce costs — <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/meta-facebook-share-price-mark-zuckerberg-metaverse-dream-earnings-2022-10">but will keep pumping billions of dollars into its metaverse projects</a>, executives said Wednesday.

Meta says it's laying off staff and easing off hiring to reduce costs – but will keep pumping billions into Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse

<ul><li>Rishi Sunak, the new UK prime minister, once worked as a junior analyst at Goldman Sachs in London.</li><li>He spent around three years at the bank, covering US stocks including railways and media, the FT reported.</li><li>Sunak also worked at one hedge fund and cofounded another before getting into politics.</li></ul>

Sunak, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rishi-sunak-penny-mordaunt-next-uk-prime-minister-2022-10">who was voted in as leader of the Conservative Party on Monday</a> — meaning he will become prime minister this week — spent around three years at the US bank, after which he worked at one hedge fund, cofounded another, and then moved into politics.

Sunak graduated from Oxford University with a bachelors degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics — a degree known for producing British politicians. While at university, he was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/mar/08/chancellor-rishi-sunak-the-bit-part-hedge-fund-partner-now-managing-the-whole-economy">president of the university's investment society</a>.

After graduating, Sunak began working at Goldman in London as a junior analyst, where he covered US stocks including railways and media, former colleagues told <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/da662f74-5a25-11ea-a528-dd0f971febbc">the Financial Times</a>. The sources spoke highly of him and told the FT that Sunak's immediate superiors were disappointed when he left the bank in 2004.

Sunak left Goldman Sachs <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/mar/08/chancellor-rishi-sunak-the-bit-part-hedge-fund-partner-now-managing-the-whole-economy">to get an MBA at Stanford University</a>. After finishing his studies, Sunak worked at the hedge fund TCI, <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/rishi-sunak-hedge-funds-financial-career-outside-politics-1766725">before setting his own up</a> – Theleme Partners – with a colleague.

<a href="https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/YbMPuo5InhJmnFMsFQWWKtikm10/appointments">Sunak also served as a director at Catamaran Ventures</a>, an investment firm <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/24/rishi-sunak-net-worth/">owned by his wife Akshata Murty</a>, though he resigned before becoming an MP in 2015. The company's <a href="https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08561424">registered address</a> is close to <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/property/1512053/where-does-Rishi-Sunak-live-London-Yorkshire-property-portfolio-evg">Sunak and Murty's home in Kensington</a>.

As well as in London, Sunak has worked in California and India, <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/insider/rishi-sunak-prime-minister-wealth-wife-brexit-personal-life-policies-wealth-b1012314.html">The Evening Standard</a> reported.

Sunak has served as MP for Richmond in North Yorkshire since 2015. He became chancellor of the exchequer under Boris Johnson in February 2020, shortly before the UK entered its first COVID-19 lockdown, but resigned in July 2022 amid the Partygate scandal.

Sunak ran in the Conservative Party leadership contest in the summer after Johnson resigned but lost to Liz Truss, who ultimately resigned herself just six weeks after assuming the role.

The party held its second leadership race in the space of just a few months, and Sunak became the UK's presumptive prime minister on Monday after his only remaining rival, Penny Mordaunt, withdrew.

Rishi Sunak, the UK's new prime minister, was once an analyst at Goldman Sachs.

Rishi Sunak, the new UK prime minister, is yet another Goldman Sachs alumnus

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Grace Dean

Articles written by the author

Meta says it's laying off staff and easing off hiring to reduce costs – but will keep pumping billions into Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse

Rishi Sunak, the new UK prime minister, is yet another Goldman Sachs alumnus