Lay off Zuckerberg and Meta, says Sorrell

THE advertising mogul Sir Martin Sorrell has said that it is “just not fair” to criticise Mark Zuckerberg and Meta following a plunge in the company’s share price.

Sir Martin, who runs media company S4 Capital, insisted he was not concerned by a wider slowdown in big tech but defended the owner of Facebook and Instagram despite a 17pc fall in its share price after disappointing results last month.

He said: “You have to get these things into perspective. I know kicking Meta has become a global pastime, but it’s just not fair.

“Let’s be quite clear. Growth has slowed, but it’s not disastrous.”

Meta last week announced it was sacking 11,000 employees as it grapples with a slowdown in advertising and tough competition from rivals including Tiktok.

It also rolled out a string of other costsaving measures, including a hiring freeze and desk-sharing for some workers, after revealing ballooning costs linked to Mr Zuckerberg’s ambitions to create a virtual world, the “metaverse”.

But Sir Martin, who has led S4 Capital since leaving rival business WPP in 2018, insisted Meta has an opportunity to recover and said that its next set of results will be flattered by comparison with less positive figures a year earlier.

The comments came after S4 Capital reported a jump in profits in the third quarter and played down worries about a looming recession.

The advertising company reported profits of £250m in the three months to the end of September, up 73pc on the same period last year. Revenues rose from £178m to £300m.

S4 Capital has contracts with tech giants including Google, Facebook, Netflix and Uber, while its other large clients are in the retail, financial services and fashion and luxury sectors.