Ashen-faced Mark Zuckerberg is seen on leaked video call telling executives he will lay off 11,000

An emotionless Mark Zuckerberg offered some scant words of encouragement to the 11,000 he laid off on Wednesday, a video call leaked hours after the mass firings has revealed. 

Provided by one of the workers affected by the layoffs, the portion of the call shows a pale faced Zuckerberg appearing before employees virtually Wednesday, hours after Meta brass circulated a memo saying it was laying off 13 percent of its staff. 

In the brief clip, the 38-year-old Facebook founder attempts to explain what he ultimately asserted was ‘his decision’ with the firings – the first major round in the firm’s 18-year history.

In the memo distributed hours earlier, Zuckerberg announced he was making reductions throughout every facet of the sprawling company – which recently suffered a massive loss in market value with stocks down 70 percent.

Zuckerberg addressed employees virtually Wednesday around 1pm ET to offer a curt continuation of apologies aired in that cold correspondence – with the tech mogul’s trademark cold demeanor on display throughout the short call.   

Meta – down to a mere $268 billion evaluation from the more than $1 trillion seen last year – owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. In addition to the layoffs, the company plans to drastically slow hiring in the coming year to further cut costs.

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An emotionless Mark Zuckerberg offered some scant words of encouragement to the 11,000 he laid off on Wednesday, a video call leaked hours after the mass firings has revealed

‘I know there must be just a range of different emotions. I want to say up front that I take full responsibility for this decision,’ Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook as a Harvard undergrad in 2004, says in the leaked clip, obtained by NBC News.

The call was reportedly one of two separate ones held by the CEO, a source said – one for the laid-off employees, and one for those not affected. 

‘I’m the founder and CEO, I’m responsible for the health of our company, for our direction, and for deciding how we execute that,’ the exec said, adding, ‘including things like this.’ 

Zuckerberg would then tell those affected that he took ‘full responsibility’ for the decision.

‘This was ultimately my call,’ he said, appearing before the workers in an empty conference room at Meta’s Menlo Park Headquarters on 1 Hacker Way.

‘And it was one of the hardest calls that I’ve had to make in the 18 years of running the company,’ the CEO droned, adding, ‘obviously, it has a big impact on your lives.’

He was then quick to add: ‘But also for our mission.’

Zuckerberg would go on to offer some words of appreciation to the outgoing employees, who will receive 16 weeks severance plus two weeks for every year of service, the company said Tuesday.

The layoffs affect 11,000 employees — or about 13 percent of Meta’s workforce 

‘We’re losing people who- you’ve really put your heart and soul into this place,’ the CEO – a onetime coder who in the past has been criticized for his cold, calculated approach to management – stammered. 

‘No matter what team you may have worked on, each of you played a role in contributing to the products that billions of people use to connect every day.’

Zuckerberg proceeded to encourage the ousted workers – who reportedly were culled because the company had been overstaffed due to over-optimism about its growth.

‘Each of you is talented and passionate, and each of you has played a role in making Meta the success that it is,’ he said.

‘No matter what team you may have worked on, each of you played a role in contributing to the products that billions of people use to connect every day.’

Mere hours earlier, In an email to employees, Zuckerberg told employees the firing were ‘necessary’ after the company lost two-thirds of its value in the span of roughly a year.

‘Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected,’ the memo – which offered an apology but was widely criticized as cold – read.

Zuckerberg wrote: ‘I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.’

In his email to employees on Wednesday, Zuckerberg a onetime coder who in the past has been criticized for his cold, calculated approach to management – took the blame for the failures at Meta

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The memo further saw Zuckerberg stress that his company would now shift resources to ‘high priority growth areas, ‘such as its AI discovery engine, ads and business platforms, and even its largely unsuccessful metaverse venture, which has emerged as a gargantuan money pit in recent months.

Since 2019, Zuckerberg, personally, has funneled more than $36 billion of company fund into the flailing project, which seeks to offer users a virtual world free to roam with their own avatars.

The CEO – whose wealth is largely tied up in his company’s valuation – has since failed to see a return on those investments, earnings reports for the firm revealed late last month – with the company subsequently seeing more than $30 billion of those funds evaporate in a matter of months.

The statements show that the exec has bet his company’s future on the technology, sinking tens of billions of dollars into it in hopes it will garner interest from wary, younger users who have been increasingly drawn to other platforms such as TikTok.

The Facebook founder was reportedly downcast during the announcement and also accepted responsibility for some of the company’s missteps, saying his optimism led to overstaffing

Consequently, Reality Labs, the division that houses metaverse and Facebook’s resident VR units, has racked up billions of dollars in debt as the venture has for the most part fallen flat, leading to losses that are crushing the company’s profits.

Meta began publishing financial data for Reality Labs in the fourth quarter of 2021 – the same quarter the company reported its first-ever drop in users.

Worsening matters, is the fact that a boom seen during the pandemic that boosted tech companies and their valuations has since turned into a bust – in the face of decades-high inflation and rapidly rising interest rates.

As of the market opening on Thursday, Meta’s share price had risen a modest five per cent today.

Zuckerberg told employees the firing were ‘necessary’ after the company lost two-thirds of its value in the span of roughly a year. Meta’s share price has tumbled nearly 70 percent since the beginning of the year and the company has also lost billions through its ‘Metaverse’ project

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Financial statements show that the exec has largely bet his company’s future on the flailing technology, sinking tens of billions of company funds as it continues to struggle

Bigger increases, however, are expected – now that the company has shed more than 11,000 fulltime salaries.

With that said, outgoing staffers were provided a severance package that allowed them 16 weeks’ base pay and two additional weeks for every year of service.

Staffers will also be provided with all remaining paid time off, Zuckerberg’s memo further divulged.

The company will also cut discretionary spending and extend its hiring freeze through the first quarter. 

Employees will get cost of healthcare for six months and those impacted will receive their November 15 vesting, according to the company.

Meta recently forecast a weak holiday quarter and significantly more costs next year wiping about $67 billion from stock market value, adding to the more than half a trillion dollars in value already lost this year.

The company’s 2021 rebrand was motivated in part because of founder Mark Zuckerberg’s desire to move the company beyond social media

A new report from the Wall Street Journal says that Meta’s Metaverse is more than 300,000 users short of its year end goal

The disappointing outlook comes as Meta is contending with slowing global economic growth, competition from TikTok, privacy changes from Apple, concerns about massive spending on the metaverse and the ever-present threat of regulation.

Meta has placed a big bet on its Metaverse being the next big frontier of the technology industry, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg funneling more than $36 billion into the project that many consider – so far at least – to be failing.

The CEO has subsequently seen more than $30 billion of those funds evaporate in a matter of months, while his net worth – which is largely tied up to his company’s valuation – was reported to have lost $88 billion.

The disappointing outlook comes as Meta is contending with slowing global economic growth, competition from TikTok, privacy changes from Apple, concerns about massive spending on the metaverse and the ever-present threat of regulation