Meta employees in the Middle East were among the 11,000 let go by the Facebook owner as it looks to stem losses that saw share value dive by more than 70% in the past year.
Fares Akkad, regional director for Meta in Mena, said in a post on LinkedIn that the team based in Dubai would see job losses.
The global reductions for Meta are expected to be around 11,000 people, equal to about 13% of the workforce, and were disclosed by company head Mark Zuckerberg in a statement on Wednesday.
In a post on his LinkedIn account Akkad said: “Yesterday was one of the hardest days of my professional career. We had to let go of 11K people globally and unfortunately the Mena team was impacted as well,” he said.
“These departures are purely due to needed restructures to face some of the challenging macro-economic conditions.”
Paying tribute to team members leaving the Meta team in Dubai he added: “The team members that are leaving us are some of the most talented, capable and kind people that I have had the pleasure to work with.
“They would be an incredible asset to any organisation. If you have any openings please share them with me and I am happy to personally refer any of these great people.”
Meta announced it will also extend its hiring freeze through the first quarter.
Meta, whose stock has plunged 71% this year, is taking steps to pare costs following several quarters of disappointing earnings and a slide in revenue.
The retrenchment, the company’s most drastic since the founding of Facebook in 2004, reflects a sharp slowdown in the digital advertising market, an economy wobbling on the brink of recession and Zuckerberg’s multibillion-dollar investment in the metaverse.
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