Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s cost for personal security is increasing by a whopping 40 per cent – up to $US14 million – just months after the social media giant announced it was slashing more than 11,000 jobs.
Filings from Meta, the parent company of Facebook, have revealed that spending on personal security for Mr Zuckerberg will soar from $US10 million to $US14 million “to address safety concerns due to specific threats to his safety arising directly as a result of his position as Meta’s founder, chairman, and CEO”.
Meta’s board said the increase was “appropriate and necessary under the circumstances” with the chief executive allowed to spend it on “additional personnel, equipment, services, residential improvement” and other safety measures.
It comes after Mr Zuckerberg made over $US10 billion in 24 hours after shares in its parent company Meta soared by 23 per cent earlier this month — one of its best days on the stock market in nearly a decade.
At the end of 2022, the company announced it was slashing 11,000 roles – around 13 per cent of its workforce – blaming a wider economic downturn and falling ad revenue as Mr Zuckerberg declared the firm would focus on a “year of efficiency” in 2023.
His security costs were last reviewed in 2018, according to the Meta filing, and while he only takes a $US1 salary a year – he is the 16th richest person in the world on the Forbes billionaire list due to his shareholdings in Meta.
In 2021, he also received compensation from the company worth $US27 million.
It has been a difficult time for the social media giant after it reported a disastrous third quarter earnings – where it revealed that its profit had more than halved to $US4.4 billion from $US9.2 billion a year earlier.
However, it ended the year with $US32.1 billion in revenue – above Wall Street expectations of $US31.6 billion.
After its results were released, Mr Zuckerberg said the tech company had entered a “phase change” after growing so quickly over nearly two decades.
“It’s very hard to really crank on efficiency while you’re growing. I just think we’re in a different environment now,” he noted.
This included changes to the structure of the company, he added.
“Next, we’re working on flattening our org structure and removing some layers in middle management to make decisions faster,” he revealed.
Mr Zuckerberg also flagged cutting projects that weren’t performing, but this wouldn’t include its virtual reality space the Metaverse, despite it cutting the company’s overall operating profit by $US13.72 billion last year.
Meta was once valued at $US1 trillion but lost 70 per cent of its value in 2022 and recorded its first revenue decline in history last July after it warned that Apple’s privacy change would see it take a staggering $10 billion hit in lost sales.