Bay Area tech giant, Meta, has allocated more than $1 billion for layoffs in 2021

Meta, the Bay Area’s foremost social media giant, has laid off around 21,000 workers since November — and it has spent big doing it.

The Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp owner broke down some of the costs of its massive “restructuring” this year in Wednesday’s quarterly earnings report, shedding light on the immediate financial ramifications of the huge job cuts and real estate cutbacks.

From Jan. 1 to June 30, the release says, Meta spent just over $1 billion on severance and other personnel costs related to the restructuring. Over the same period, it dropped another $1 billion on “facilities consolidation,” though mostly in the first quarter.

The huge severance costs show the scale of Meta’s layoffs — among the largest in the recently pared-back tech industry — but also point to Bay Area tech’s generous exit packages (though Elon Musk and X are being sued for just the opposite). When CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the first 11,000-worker cut in November, he laid out Meta’s policy: 16 weeks of base pay, plus two weeks for every year at the company, along with six months of health care coverage, payment for all unused time off, outstanding stock awards, and career and immigration support.

The median yearly compensation for Meta employees was $296,320 last year. Even if only two-thirds of that sum comes from base pay, a 16-week severance package is worth over $60,000.

The brunt of the Menlo Park-based firm’s real estate restructuring costs came from research and development offices, according to the release. In January, Meta confirmed that it had listed 435,000 square feet of office space at 181 Fremont St. for sublease. The company now only has one office in San Francisco.

But the job cuts have been more high profile, especially as they eked across several months, reportedly stirring discord at the tech giant. After the major cut in November, Zuckerberg announced fresh layoffs in March. They came in waves: recruiters first, then technical employees in April and then folks from the business division in late May.

Zuckerberg struck a satisfied tone as he alluded to the massive layoff rounds in Wednesday’s prepared remarks. After hitting his go-to “year of efficiency” phrase, he said the quick construction of Meta’s new Twitter rival, Threads, was a testament to the firm’s “leaner” makeup and “cultural changes.”

“Now that we’ve gotten through the major layoffs, the rest of 2023 will be about creating stability for employees,” he said, adding that he will focus on running the company, “as lean as possible.”

In the broader scheme of the corporation’s overall financials, the $1 billion hits barely leave a mark: Meta pulled in over $60 billion in revenue over 2023’s first six months. The firm’s stock has risen 6% since releasing earnings. If Meta’s numbers are accurate, almost half of the world’s population uses at least one of its apps every month.

Hear of anything happening at Meta? Contact tech reporter Stephen Council securely at stephen.council@sfgate.com or on Signal at 628-204-5452.