CHANGE: Facebook planning ‘large scale layoffs’ of thousands of workers following hiring freeze and 70 per cent fall in share price this year.

Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc forecast a weak holiday quarter and significantly more costs next year wiping about $67 billion off Meta’s stock market value, adding to the more than half a trillion dollars in value already lost this year.

The disappointing outlook comes as Meta is contending with slowing global economic growth, competition from TikTok, privacy changes from Apple, concerns about massive spending on the metaverse and the ever-present threat of regulation.

Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has said he expects the metaverse investments to take about a decade to bear fruit.

He’s also said Meta plans to spend $10 billion a year developing their metaverse, which as Glenn noted last week, looks like warmed-over Second Life.