By Abhik Sengupta: Meta (formerly Facebook) has clarified that its co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg will not resign next year. The statement comes after a report claimed that Zuckerberg would exit the company next year due to investors’ frustrations with his plans to double down on investment in the loss-making metaverse project. Meta also reported a fall in revenue in the last two quarters and expects the situation to remain the same for the next three months. The company also laid off 13 per cent of its global workforce nearly two weeks ago.

The news about Zuckerberg’s resignation was first reported by The Leak on Tuesday. On the same day, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a tweet that a report on CEO Mark Zuckerberg stepping down next year was “false”.

Interestingly, Meta’s shares were up by 1 per cent after The Leak’s report.

The original report cited an “insider source, privy to plans at Meta”. It cited a separate report, which said that investors are unhappy with Zuckerberg’s bullish plans for the metaverse. Meta’s Reality Lab,s which is working on Zuckerberg’s metaverse project, lost $3.7 billion in Q3 2022.

During the earnings call, Zuckerberg defended the project despite criticism and said, “A lot of people might disagree with this investment. But from what I can tell, I think that this is going to be a very important thing, and I think it would be a mistake for us to not focus on any of these areas, which I think are going to be fundamentally important to the future”.

He also added that Reality Labs operating losses in 2023 would grow significantly year-over-year. Beyond 2023, the division is expected to generate revenues.

As mentioned, Meta recently laid off roughly 13 per cent of its global workforce, which is roughly 11,000 – the biggest in the company’s history. If the company continues to operate at losses and there are no changes in the macroeconomic conditions, more firings could be inevitable.