Hello again, tech fans. Writing to you from New York, I’m your host, Jordan Parker Erb. First things first: results from the 2022 midterm elections are still coming in – follow Insider’s live coverage here.
But in the tech world: There’s one thing we can’t seem to escape — layoffs. This morning Meta announced it will lay off more than 11,000 employees. Salesforce is reportedly planning to cut as many as 2,500 jobs. Elon Musk’s Twitter is asking some laid-off workers if they want to come back.
Meanwhile, some tech workers who have been laid off are taking to TikTok to post “get ready with me” videos wherein they film themselves — you guessed it — getting ready to be laid off.
Therapists recently told us that using TikTok to grieve a relationship may actually be helpful, which makes me think that posting GRWMs may be the hottest new trend in coping with layoffs.
With all the heavy news this week, today’s newsletter is a bit of a doozy. Hang in there.
1. Few departments will be spared in Meta’s layoffs. Facing slowing growth and a shareholder rebellion, Facebook has responded with plans to slash staff — and even Mark Zuckerberg’s beloved metaverse division is expected to feel the heat.
2. Crypto tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried lost 94% of his fortune overnight, marking the biggest one-day wealth collapse among billionaires on record. His crypto-exchange platform, FTX, was seemingly on the verge of collapse before Binance agreed to buy it on Tuesday — days after he and the founder of Binance into a very public spat on Twitter. Here’s how SBF and FTX got here.
3. Elon Musk is looking to rehire Twitter workers. Internal messages viewed by Insider show that managers and directors who survived last week’s mass layoffs were informed they “had the opportunity” to ask people who lost their jobs “if they will come back.” What we learned from the internal messages.
4. Prime members are complaining that Amazon Music is “unusable.” Amazon Music recently added 98 million songs to the platform, but Prime members can only play individual songs if they upgrade to Amazon Music Unlimited for $9 a month — and some are taking to social media to criticize the update. Why Prime members are so frustrated.
5. Carvana was hailed as a pandemic era success story. Now its fortunes have soured. Over the last year, 98% of the company’s market value has evaporated. So what gives? The online used-car retailer chalks it up to a challenging economy and slowing demand. Get the details here.
6. VCs share their best advice for startup founders. As the tech industry heads for a historic slump and thousands of workers lose their jobs, investors from 7wire, Interplay, and Menlo shared what founders should do to withstand the downturn. Read their advice here.
