Meta CEO addresses 4 am layoff email and Q2 expense surge

Meta's chief executive used the Q2 earnings call to comment on the infamous 4 am layoff email that notified thousands of employees worldwide of role eliminations in May, when about 8,000 positions were cut. He explained that the quarter's expense total rose to $42 billion, a 55% increase, with $1.2 billion attributed to severance and $2.4 billion to legal charges. Revenue reached $60.8 billion, up 28% year over year, while GAAP operating income fell 8% to $18.8 billion, representing a 31% margin; excluding severance and legal costs, operating income would have risen 9%.

The workforce now stands at just over 75,000 employees, a 3% decline from Q1, and Meta expects the majority of the laid-off staff to be off the headcount by the close of Q3. Zuckerberg also noted that higher compensation was largely due to technical hires in AI, and that infrastructure spending grew because of increased depreciation, data-center operations and third-party cloud usage.