Facebook-parent Meta Platforms must streamline by chopping jobs and capital expenditure, its shareholder Altimeter Capital Management mentioned on Monday in an open letter to Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg.

The firm has misplaced investor confidence because it ramped up spending and pivoted to the metaverse, the technology-focused hedge fund with a 0.1 p.c stake mentioned, and advised a three-step plan.

Altimeter mentioned annual free money stream will be doubled to $40 billion (roughly Rs. 3,30,700 crore) if it minimize headcount by no less than 20 p.c, trimmed capital expenditure by no less than $5 billion (roughly Rs. 41,300 crore) to $25 billion (roughly Rs. 2,06,700 crore) a yr and capped annual funding within the metaverse to $5 billion (roughly Rs. 41,349 crore) as an alternative of the present $10 billion (roughly Rs. 82,695 crore).

Meta has spent billions and employed 1000’s of staff around the globe to construct the metaverse, which refers to a shared digital surroundings that makes use of augmented or digital actuality know-how to make it really feel extra life like.

But the corporate’s goals have fallen quick because the Reality Labs unit, which works on augmented and digital actuality, has constantly reported staggering losses. It misplaced $5.8 billion (roughly Rs. 47,968 crore) within the first six months of the yr.

Altimeter mentioned such enormous investments “in an unknown future is super-sized and terrifying, even by Silicon Valley standards”.

Meta Platforms, which is ready to report third-quarter outcomes on Wednesday after markets shut, didn’t instantly reply to a Reuters request for remark.

Brad Gerstner, Altimeter’s chair who inspired aggressive funding in synthetic intelligence, mentioned the agency wished to have interaction with Meta and didn’t have any calls for.

The social media firm had in June minimize plans to rent engineers by no less than 30 p.c, with Zuckerberg warning staff to brace for an financial downturn.

© Thomson Reuters 2022