Facebook-parent Meta Platforms must streamline by chopping jobs and capital expenditure, its shareholder Altimeter Capital Management stated 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 % stake stated, and advised a three-step plan.

Altimeter stated annual free money circulation could be doubled to $40 billion (roughly Rs. 3,30,700 crore) if it lower headcount by at the least 20 %, trimmed capital expenditure by at the least $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 hundreds of workers around the globe to construct the metaverse, which refers to a shared digital atmosphere that makes use of augmented or digital actuality expertise to make it really feel extra sensible.

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

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

Meta Platforms, which is about 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, stated the agency needed to interact with Meta and didn’t have any calls for.

The social media firm had in June lower plans to rent engineers by at the least 30 %, with Zuckerberg warning workers to brace for an financial downturn.

© Thomson Reuters 2022