Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal announced a hiring freeze and other cost-cutting efforts on Thursday, a reflection of the company’s state of uncertainty while it awaits Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover.
Twitter won’t hire new employees and may rescind offers already out, according to an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg. Twitter leadership will make some exceptions in cases where the role is critical to business. According to the memo by Twitter leadership, they are also cutting back on travel, marketing and consulting costs.
Agrawal said global events, including the war in Ukraine and the supply chain crunch, have hurt Twitter’s business results and may continue to do so. The company isn’t planning company-wide job cuts, “but leaders will continue making changes to their organizations to improve efficiencies as needed,” Agrawal wrote.
“At the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, the decision was made to invest aggressively to deliver big growth in audience and revenue, and as a company we did not hit intermediate milestones that enable confidence in these goals,” Agrawal said. “In order to responsibly manage the organization as we sharpen our roadmaps and our work, we need to continue to be intentional about our teams, hiring and costs.”
Two of Twitter’s top leaders are also departing. Kayvon beykpour, the head of consumer product and Bruce Falck are departing as revenue managers. Jay Sullivan, interim head of sales and head product will replace Kayvon Beykpour. According to a source familiar with the matter, Sullivan talked about refocusing the company’s efforts on fewer projects at recent company and team meetings.
Beykpour said on Twitter that it’s not how he imagined leaving the company. “Parag asked me to leave after letting me know that he wants to take the team in a different direction,” he said.
A Twitter spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment. As Musk doesn’t yet own Twitter, he is not yet directly influencing the company’s decision-making. Meta Platforms Inc., which is a competitor to Musk, also announced recently that it intends to reduce expenditures.
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The changes reflect Twitter’s current state of limbo while it awaits a new owner. Musk, the world’s richest man and CEO of Tesla Inc., agreed to buy the company for $44 billion last month, but the deal may not be finalized for months, as Musk is still working to secure the financing. Musk suggested on Tuesday that the deal may still collapse.
That has left Twitter employees in a lurch, as many don’t know whether the projects or teams they are working on will be prioritized under new leadership.
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