With global majors considering cost-cutting measures and layoffs witnessed across industries owing to economic slowdown, Twitter is now planning to layoff 300 staffers, thus trimming approximately 8 percent of its workforce.
While sources noted that the estimated number of layoffs might change, the announcement will soon be made by the micro-blogging site, as early this week when it delivers the Q3 earnings this Thursday.
A year ago, the social giant confirmed plans to cull 336 of its employees as a part of the overall restructuring plan. Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey, who was brought in as the company’s chief executive for a second time was planning layoffs across all departments.
“The team has been working around the clock to produce streamlined roadmap for Twitter, Vine, and Periscope and they are shaping up to be strong,” said Dorsey in a letter filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last year.
“Product and Engineering are going to make the most significant structural changes to reflect our plan ahead,” Dorsey was quoted by ZD Net. “We feel strongly that Engineering will move much faster with a smaller and nimbler team, while remaining the biggest percentage of our workforce. And the rest of the organisation will be streamlined in parallel.”
On the backdrop of slow growth in sales, Twitter is trying means to control losses and there has been a 40percent fall in its share price in the last 12 months, which has made it more difficult to pay its engineers with stock.
During the course of past few weeks, Twitter’s fate has been rumoured to exploring a possible sale to a handful of companies to include The Walt Disney Company, Alphabet, and Salesforce having expressed interest in acquisition, however now it seems all have backed out. It seems job cuts are one of the ways for Twitter to put an end to its monetization struggles. The company had 3,860 employees globally as of June.
Twitter’s struggle to keep up with the massive growth of fan bases with competitors such as Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram, the company has been struggling to expand its user base. The social network has reportedly told potential buyers it wants to wrap up negotiations on a sale by October 27, when it announces its third-quarter earnings, CNet reports.
