Meta Is Giving Up Prime Office Space in South Beach Tower
Meta Platforms Inc. is not renewing its lease for seven floors of office space in Singapore that’s set to expire at the end of September 2024, in a report by The Business Times.
The Facebook parent had communicated its decision to not extend its lease at South Beach Tower in June last year, the newspaper reported, citing Samantha Tan, general manager of developer South Beach Consortium Pte. That was just three months after a round of global layoffs by Meta in March.
Meta is among technology companies that began conducting rounds of layoffs since late 2022, that were deeper and broader than anything in recent memory. Still, the belt-tightening measures have allowed Meta to announce plans for an additional $50 billion in stock buybacks and its first quarterly dividend, giving investors a reason to stick around.
Meta started moving staff out of its 115,000-square-feet South Beach Tower offices in the first half of last year, consolidating its teams at its office in Marina One in the financial district, the report said.
Meta Gives Up Entire Office Space In UK
Meta has paid £149 million to break the lease on a London office in 2023, which underlines the tech giant’s ongoing adoption of hybrid work as the new normal as major companies cut down on office space.
Meta’s move arrives only two years after the Facebook parent had committed to the 310,000 square feet of office space owned by commercial landlord British Land. The office space, based at 1 Triton Square near Regent’s Park, had undergone significant redevelopment prior to Meta’s commitment being confirmed in 2021.
The company is believed to have paid the equivalent of about seven years of rent to release itself from its office contract in London. Meta never even occupied the site, instead renting it out in 2021. According to the FT, the company led by Mark Zuckerberg has also terminated leases in New York and put the brakes on an expansion in Austin, Texas. This corresponds with the company’s earlier comments to the news outlet that it is reevaluating its “entire global real estate footprint” to adjust to changes in working conditions.
The news broke after British Land had raised the point in a trading update, notifying that it would experience a short-term hit on earnings as Meta had broken the lease for one of two buildings the company rents in the same development.
(Source: The Business Times, various news outlets)
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