Rachel Mendelson/Insider
- Meta, Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet's severance packages will cost up to $4.7 billion.
- The tech giants have collectively laid off tens of thousands of workers over the past few months.
- Google parent company Alphabet will have the highest severance cost, at a maximum of $2.3 billion.
Big tech firms are accruing billions in costs from exit packages as mass layoffs continue to sweep the industry.
Meta, Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet will collectively spend up to $4.7 billion on severance costs alone, earnings reports posted this week show.
Meta's severance costs totalled $975 million for the fourth quarter, but it said some of the cost will be offset by "decreases in payroll, bonus and other benefits expenses." Facebook's parent company axed more than 11,000 employees — about 13% of its headcount — in November.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post on November 9 that his decision to increase its investments "did not play out" the way he had expected.
Meta could see its severance cost climb higher in coming months, with growing speculation that more layoffs are likely. The company said in an earnings call this week that it "may incur additional restructuring charges as we progress further in our efficiency efforts." Zuckerberg also said that the November layoffs were "the beginning of our focus on efficiency."
Microsoft will incur costs of $800 million from severance pay, it said in its second quarter results. The company laid off around 1,000 employees in October after it ended contracts of hundreds of recruiters and others working in talent-acquisition in August. In January, it announced 10,000 job cuts, warning employees of "times of significant change."
Amazon's severance package spend amounted to $640 million in the fourth quarter of 2022. CEO Andy Jassy said on January 4 in a memo that the company would cut 18,000 jobs from across its Amazon Stores and People Experience and Technology Solutions divisions.
Jassy said at the time: "This year's review has been more difficult given the uncertain economy and that we've hired rapidly over the last several years."
Alphabet expects its exit package costs to range from $1.9 billion to $2.3 billion. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google's parent company Alphabet, announced the company would lay off 12,000 employees, or 6% of its global workforce, on January 20.
Pichai told employees in an email that the company had seen "dramatic growth" over the past two years and that it "hired for a different economic reality" compared to what it faces today.
Meta, Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet did not respond to Insider's requests for comments.