- Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) is shutting down its enterprise communication tool Workplace as the company looks to focus on artificial intelligence and the metaverse, a company spokesman told Seeking Alpha.
- “We are discontinuing Workplace from Meta so we can focus on building AI and metaverse technologies that we believe will fundamentally reshape the way we work,” a spokesman told Seeking Alpha via email. “Over the next two years, we will provide our Workplace customers the option to transition to Zoom’s Workvivo product, Meta’s only preferred migration partner.”
- Workplace is set to operate normally until August 31, 2025. From there, customer data will be viewable and accessible for download until May 31, 2026.
- TechCrunch first reported news of Workplace shutting down.
- At this point, it is unclear if Meta will lay off employees working on Workplace or if they will be reassigned within the company.
- Previously known as Facebook @ Work, Workplace was designed to compete along with other enterprise messaging tools such as Salesforce’s (CRM) Slack, Microsoft (MSFT) Teams or Zoom (ZM). It was introduced in 2015 to significant amounts of fanfare. As of May 2020, there were 7M paying subscribers, according to ZDNet.
- Meta shares were up fractionally in late morning trading on Tuesday.
(This story has been updated to confirm the Meta is shutting down Workplace.)