Meta’s Reality Labs to undergo ‘restructuring’

Meta's Reality Labs business has been bleeding money for years at this point, although so far, company executives have been happy to continue footing the bill with the goal of expanding the mixed reality device market. However, Meta is now restructuring the unit, splitting it into two distinct groups with their own objectives. As a result, some lay-offs are also now taking place. 

Meta Reality Labs was born after Facebook acquired Oculus for $2 billion, kickstarting Zuckerberg's ‘metaverse' ambitions. The Reality Labs division is responsible for software like Meta Horizons, as well as hardware like the Quest headsets and Meta's smart glasses. Moving forward, Reality Labs will be split into two divisions, one in charge of Quest and ‘Metaverse' projects, and another focused on other wearable devices.

As reported by The Verge, Reality Labs employees were sent a memo this week confirming some additional changes. A “relatively small number” of staffers will be let go from the division, as revealed by Meta CTO, Andrew Bosworth. The idea behind the shake-up is to create “integrated product experiences across hardware” with “less friction and fragmentation”.

The success of the Quest platform has Meta feeling that it has finally got “all the major components in place” to expand the software platform consistently. Hopefully that will mean more marquee Quest games and other ambitious software updates.

KitGuru Says: With Reality Labs continuing to lose tens of billions each year, a shake-up was inevitable. It will be interesting to see what a ‘relatively small number' means, because well, in an organisation as large as Meta, even a 1% reduction in workforce can impact hundreds of people. So far, Meta has let go of around 20,000 workers since late 2022. 

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