Actuality Labs COO Dan Reed Exits Meta Amid Restructuring

Dan Reed, the chief working officer of Meta’s Actuality Labs division, is stepping down after practically 11 years on the firm.

Reed’s departure marks one other management change at a time when the division faces mounting inner and exterior stress.

Reed introduced his exit Wednesday in a LinkedIn put up, reflecting on his time constructing what he described as a “fast-growing, multibillion-dollar client know-how enterprise” spanning AI wearables, augmented and blended actuality, and the metaverse.

“I see SO a lot thrilling alternative on this house, to which I ultimately intend to return to steer and develop one thing cool and thrilling,” Reed wrote. “Within the meantime, I am very excited after this 20+ 12 months run to take an prolonged break and spend high quality time with my spouse and two boys, reconnect with family and friends, and recharge.”

Reed, a former NBA government, first joined Meta in 2014 to steer the corporate’s partnerships with sports activities groups and athletes.

Meta didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Reed’s departure follows Meta’s main restructuring of Actuality Labs earlier this 12 months. Enterprise Insider first reported in January that the corporate started integrating Actuality Labs extra carefully with its core enterprise. This shift reversed components of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s 2021 reorganization, which had positioned the group as a stand-alone, metaverse-focused division.

Underneath the brand new construction, gross sales, advertising and marketing, and analytics groups that when reported to Reed had been redistributed below broader Meta management. Meta COO Javier Olivan now oversees the groups beforehand led by Reed, and different Actuality Labs leaders have been aligned with high firm executives, together with chief advertising and marketing officer Alex Schultz and head of partnerships Justin Osofsky.

Meta’s chief know-how officer, Andrew Bosworth, credited Reed on the time for guiding the enterprise group by way of a section of fast progress. An inner memo seen by BI in January stated that Actuality Labs’ gross sales rose over 40% year-over-year in 2024, and the division beat practically all of its aggressive gross sales and person objectives. Bosworth referred to as Reed’s management “a serious half” of that success.

Regardless of these beneficial properties, Actuality Labs stays a monetary sinkhole for Meta. The division, which incorporates the Quest headsets, Horizon Worlds, and Meta’s Ray-Ban good glasses, has racked up greater than $60 billion in losses since 2020.

Final month, Meta laid off employees throughout Actuality Labs, together with groups engaged on VR gaming and the Supernatural health app.

Internally, Bosworth has described 2025 as “essentially the most crucial” 12 months for the division and stated that Meta’s bold metaverse bets might both validate years of funding or be remembered as a “legendary misadventure.”

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