Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey confirms it will lay off 8% of workforce
The reports of widespread job cuts at Twitter has been confirmed today with the news that 336 employees – around eight per cent of its global staff – will be laid-off as the company looks to increase efficiency.
The Drum contacted Twitter to find out if the company’s marketing department would be affected by cuts. A spokesperson said that, at this time, it had nothing to add beyond CEO Jack Dorsey’s Tweet and the Tweets sent from @TwitterIR.
It comes just over a week into Dorsey's tenure as chief executive of Twitter. He announced on the social media platform that he had “made some tough but necessary decisions that enable Twitter to move with greater focus and reinvest in our growth”.
Made some tough but necessary decisions that enable Twitter to move with greater focus and reinvest in our growth. http://t.co/BWd7EiGAF2
— Jack (@jack) October 13, 2015
The memo from Dorsey to his employees confirmed the rumours of layoffs and said the company felt “strongly that engineering will move much faster with a smaller and nimbler team, while remaining the biggest percentage of our workforce,"
In the memo Dorsey also wrote: “Let's take this time to express our gratitude to all of those who are leaving us. We will honor them by doing our best to serve all the people that use Twitter”.
Twitter stock fell following the original reports last week, however shares were up more than three per cent in pre-market trading Tuesday following the announcement that revenue for the third quarter would be "at or above the high end" of previous forecasts.
The micro-blogging site has suffered from stagnating growth over the last two years however its engineering division has more than doubled from the 2,000 staff it had in 2013, leading to claims that those close to the company felt it was too bloated.