The micro-blogging platform, Twitter announced on Thursday that it has laid off 30 percent of employees from its talent acquisition team, as the company deals with increasing business pressures and a potential takeover from Elon Musk. The laid-off employees will receive severance packages and the company will “reprioritize’ the remaining recruitment staff.
Twitter is Shifting Employees to Areas that Will Have the Greatest Positive Impact
Twitter had earlier announced to halt most hiring across divisions. As Twitter paused hiring, the micro-blogging platform last month shifted employees away from audio Spaces, Communities, and newsletters verticals for areas that “will have the greatest positive impact on the public conversation”. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal in May fired consumer product leader Kayvon Beykpour and head of revenue product Bruce Falck, saying there is a hiring freeze now and Twitter will also pause spending in most areas.
Agrawal had said that the company will also be reviewing all extended offers to determine criticality and those that should be pulled back. “We are not planning company-wide layoffs, but leaders will continue making changes to their organizations to improve efficiencies as needed,” Agrawal had said in a memo to employees.
Twitter has paused most hiring and backfills, except for business-critical roles as determined by ‘Staff’ members. “Some have been asking why a alame-duck’ CEO would make these changes if we’re getting acquired anyway. While I expect the deal to close, we need to be prepared for all scenarios and always do what’s right for Twitter,” Agrawal had said.
Right Now, Costs Exceed Revenue, Says Elon Musk
In a recent all-hands call with Twitter employees, Musk said that he’s not concerned with what title he’d have at the company, but that he wants to be heavily involved in the product. At that meeting, Twitter employees voiced concerns about potential layoffs in response to the macroeconomic environment.
“Right now, costs exceed revenue. That’s not a great situation,” he said regarding potential Twitter layoffs. As CEO of Tesla, Musk just laid off nearly 200 employees and shuttered the company’s San Mateo, California office amid broader job reductions.
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