iWorld
Vikram Sinha to lead Indonesia’s telecom major Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison
Mumbai: Indian origin executive Vikram Sinha has been appointed as chief executive officer of telecommunications company PT Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison Tbk (Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison). The newly formed entity is Indonesia’s second-largest telco company.
PT Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison Tbk was formed following the completion of the proposed merger of Indonesia’s two leading telecommunications businesses, PT Indosat Tbk (Indosat Ooredoo) and PT Hutchison 3 Indonesia (H3I), after receiving all required shareholder and regulatory approvals. The merger was completed on 4 January.
Sinha was previously associated with Indosat Ooredoo as chief operating officer and director since 2019. He is a telecommunications industry veteran who has spent a decade with Bharti Airtel in India and Africa, before moving to the Ooredoo Group. At Ooredoo Group, he was posted in the Maldives in 2017 and later in Myanmar in 2018.
“We are pleased to combine two of Indonesia’s leading telecoms brands to create a stronger number two player in Indonesia, backed by two highly committed partners in Ooredoo Group and CK Hutchison. Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison is well placed to achieve exciting long-term growth under the leadership of Vikram and his experienced management team with a proven track record in Indonesia,” said Ooredoo Group managing director Aziz Aluthman Fakhroo.
“I have every confidence that this merger will be highly accretive for all stakeholders involved, including customers, shareholders, and for Indonesia,” said CK Hutchison Holdings group co-managing director Caning Fok. “Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison is now a stronger, world-class digital telecoms and internet company with critical mass, well-positioned to build an even more powerful network that can benefit Indonesia’s development and customers, who will receive improved services and an even broader product offering that would not have otherwise been possible.”
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
