More than 300 Twitter employees will lose their jobs as part of new CEO Jack Dorsey’s first big move, in an effort to “restructure” the company and create a “more focused Twitter”.
It was originally reported last week that Dorsey would be moving to streamline the social network’s large workforce, and a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission overnight confirms the plans.
The “restructuring and reduction in force” will see layoffs of up to 336 Twitter employees, an equivalent of 8% of the company’s overall global workforce, as Re/Code reports.
“The restructuring is part of an overall plan to organise around the company’s top product priorities and drive efficiencies through the company,” Dorsey says in the filing.
“The company intends to reinvest savings in its most important priories to drive growth.”
The layoffs will cost up to $US20 million mostly in severance packages, will the restructuring will set Twitter back up to $US15 million.
The cuts will hit the product and engineering departments the hardest, and in an email to employees Dorsey says those losing their jobs will be treated with the “upmost of respect”.
“We feel strongly that engineering will move much faster with a smaller and nimbler team, while remaining the biggest percentage of our workforce,” Dorsey says in the email.
“The rest of the organisation will be streamlined in parallel.
“Twitter will go to great lengths to take care of each individual by providing generous exit packages and help finding a new job.”
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Denham Sadler is a former editor of StartupSmart. He was previously a journalist at the publication and has worked as a freelancer for the Guardian, the Saturday Paper and the ABC. In his spare time he likes puns and jaffles.
