Twitter is not planning large numbers of layoffs

Social media platform tries to reassure employees by saying it is not considering company-wide layoffs, but will continue its restructuring

Twitter has said it will continue to restructure Elon Musk’s company, but has no plans to lose jobs on a massive scale.

The platform announced this week (after repeated warnings) that it is suing Elon Musk over his decision to end his $44 billion acquisition of the platform.

Musk said he walked away from the deal because Twitter fired senior executives and a third of its talent acquisition team, violating Twitter’s obligation to “keep the material components of its current business organization substantially intact.”

Concerned staff

Musk also cited the unknown number of fake accounts and bots as part of his rationale for running away.

It’s fair to say that most Twitter employees will be relieved that Elon Musk pulled out of the deal, having endured months of uncertainty over his “will he, won’t he” approach to the takeover.

Twitter employees were concerned about Musk’s stance on cutting staff and other costs, reducing content moderation and limiting remote work.

Elon Musk spoke with Twitter employees in a virtual ‘all hands’ meeting in mid-June.

While he talked about possible layoffs, extraterrestrial life, remote work and freedom of speech, Musk failed to reassure Twitter staff about the future under his leadership.

Twitter restructuring

Twitter said in a Submit on Wednesday, it’s not looking at company-wide layoffs, but could likely continue to restructure the company.

It also added that it had sent Musk a formal request to approve two tailor-made employee retention programs in June, but he did not approve.

“We’re not looking at company-wide layoffs,” the company said on file. “However, teams from across the company are re-prioritizing and making changes to ensure we work responsibly and efficiently in today’s work environment.”

“We may continue to see restructuring and organizational changes as we continue to align with our revised business needs (as we have always done in the past),” it added.

And there’s no doubt that there have been some changes within Twitter’s executive team in recent months.

In January, Twitter said the chief of security was no longer with the company and that the chief information security officer would also be leaving in the coming weeks.

The company did not say whether the departure was voluntary.

The changes were the latest move under CEO Parag Agrawal, who succeeded co-founder Jack Dorsey last November.

In May, it emerged that CEO Agrawal had fired two senior executives, Kayvon Beykpour, who headed Twitter’s consumer division; and Bruce Falck, who oversaw revenue.

Both men confirmed that their departure was not their decision.

That same month, Twitter said it would pause hiring and review all existing job openings to determine if any should be “withdrawn.”

Then it was revealed that Twitter had lost three more senior employees, who jumped off the platform.

These executives were named as Ilya Brown, VP of Product Management; Katrina Lane, VP of Twitter service; and Max Schmeiser, head of data science.