Twitter Announces Mass Layoffs As Elon Musk Deal Implodes, Lays Off 30% Of Talent Acquisition Team
Twitter laid off 30% of its talent acquisition team last week as the deal to be acquired by Tesla CEO Elon Musk imploded. This comes two months after the company instituted a hiring freeze.
A Twitter spokesperson confirmed the layoffs to SF Gate and Techcrunch but declined to detail the exact number of employees let go. The company spokesperson told the media outlets that employees will receive severance packages and the remaining recruitment staff will be reprioritized due because of the hiring freeze.
According to SF Gate: “A company spokesperson told SFGATE that the layoffs are a way for the company to refocus its business needs during a lean period.
“As the broader tech industry undergoes intense headwinds, Twitter already announced a hiring pause in May, with a few key exceptions for “critical” positions.
From Techcrunch:
Twitter’s executives have also witnessed some serious reshuffling since Parag Agrawal took over for Jack Dorsey as CEO. After the deal with Elon Musk was announced, Agrawal let go of consumer GM Keyvon Beykpour and revenue product lead Bruce Falck.
Agrawal has made a number of other key personnel changes since assuming his new role in December. At the time, Twitter lost its chief design officer Dantley Davis and head of engineering Michael Montano.
A month later, Twitter lost two more leaders, chief information security officer, Rinki Sethi, and head of security, Peiter Zatko.
“Some have been asking why a ‘lame-duck’ CEO would make these changes if we’re getting acquired anyway,” Agrawal tweeted.
“While I expect the deal to close, we need to be prepared for all scenarios and always do what’s right for Twitter.”
Musk tweeted four images of him laughing in response to Twitter saying they will sue him for backing out of the deal.
Musk added captions that read: “They said I couldn’t buy Twitter. Then they wouldn’t disclose bot information. Now they want to force me to buy Twitter in court. Now they have to disclose bot information in court.”
Next Musk posted a picture of actor Chuck Norris playing chess with a single pawn on his side of the board with Musk saying, “Chuckmate.”
Twitter Chairman Brett Taylor said:
“The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement.
“We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.”
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 11, 2022
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 11, 2022
The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.
— Bret Taylor (@btaylor) July 8, 2022