Big Tech's big job losses
Tech Life
BBC
4.3 • 227 Ratings
🗓️ 11 November 2022
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week Facebook owner Meta becomes the latest tech giant to axe thousands of jobs. We ask veteran industry watcher Michael Malone how big a crisis this is for Silicon Valley - and we hear from our west Africa correspondent, Nkechi Ogbonna, about how big tech's problems are being felt there. Cyber reporter Joe Tidy takes us through the rise and fall of the crypto exchange, FTX. New research highlights the rise and rise of the borderless IT worker. And gaming guru Sir Ian Livingstone tells us about a life in video games - and discovering Lara Croft.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, so I'd like to tell you where you'll find more just like it. |
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| 0:34.1 | There's probably another podcast on there that you're absolutely love. |
| 0:41.4 | No. sounds. There's probably another podcast on there that you're absolutely love. Welcome back to TechTent, presented this week by me, Tom Singleton. But don't worry, |
| 0:46.0 | you'll be hearing plenty from your usual guide to the world of Tech as Zoe Clyman throughout |
| 0:49.7 | the program. Now, it's cozy and warm as always here in the tent, but for many in big tech, |
| 0:55.5 | the chill wind is blowing, with meta the latest to announce thousands of job cuts. We'll discuss |
| 1:01.0 | that in a moment, including how the icy blast is being felt far from California. It's been |
| 1:06.1 | another dizzying week in Crypto Land. Cyber reporter Joe Tidy will be with me to chart a course |
| 1:12.5 | through the latest developments. And the man who discovered Lara Croft on a life in games and gaming. |
| 1:21.9 | A matter of weeks ago, an upbeat meta was telling us how the virtual worlds often referred to |
| 1:26.6 | as the metaverse, into which its pouring worlds often referred to as the Metaverse, |
| 1:30.3 | into which its pouring billions of dollars were the future. |
| 1:34.7 | This week, it was a very different message from the owner of Facebook and Instagram, |
| 1:41.3 | as its boss Mark Zuckerberg announced Meta was laying off 11,000 people, 13% of its workforce. |
| 1:46.1 | It matters not just because these are the first mass job losses in the company's history, |
| 1:50.3 | but because so many other tech firms have done something similar, most notably Twitter, |
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