Twitter to cut 8 percent of worldwide workforce
Twitter is making rather significant cuts to its employee numbers after confirming it is to shed 8 percent of its staff. This is approximately 336 people and is part of its efforts to streamline its engineering team.
This development at Twitter was only revealed yesterday, with reports that sources within the company said the cuts were imminent and would affect most, “if not all, departments”.
Official confirmation has been given by a filing issued to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that confirmed the exact number of employees to be let go.
Explaining its decision, Twitter said: “The restructuring is part of an overall plan to organise around the company’s top product priorities and drive efficiencies throughout the company. The company intends to reinvest savings in its most important priorities to drive growth.”
Given the legalese that comes with such statements, Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey has published a letter explaining the company’s decision and where exactly the jobs are likely to be cut, with engineering mooted as the most affected area.
“Product and Engineering are going to make the most significant structural changes to reflect our plan ahead,” Dorsey said. “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.”
According to Re/code, the financial cost to Twitter in severance deals will be in the region of US$15m, but its expected revenues are now likely to increase for Q3, potentially to the region of US$560m.
The fate of Twitter’s Irish staff is unknown, although it does raise questions about the move into Twitter’s new office space in Cumberland House near Fenian Street in late 2016. The company recently reversed its decision on a move to its new San Francisco base as the company’s global growth slowed down.
