Monday, Jack Dorsey was appointed permanent CEO of Twitter, after four months of being the social media's interim chief executive officer.
As a co-founder of the company and one of its main leaders throughout, Dorsey was on the shortlist for the position. Now that he has it, he isn't afraid to make necessary adjustments in the organization. Multiple sources suggest that a major series of layoffs is due to happen next week at Twitter, affecting almost all departments.
To many analysts, Twitter seems a bloated company. In Q2 2013, before its listing, the company had around 2,000 employees, a number that doubled until Q3 2015. During the same timeframe, the number of people actively using the network shrank by a worrying 50 percent.
During his months as interim CEO, Dorsey guided the company towards a more focused approach. In August, his preoccupation with "clarifying ownership" led to a reshuffling of Twitter's product team.
"Twitter is clearly going through a transition, a new C.E.O., new products, and this restructuring is another avenue they will need to go down," Gartner technology analyst, Brian Blau, said.
Dorsey takes the reins at a critical moment for the micro-blogging company. The stock value of Twitter is low and dropped another three percent after the layoff announcement hit the media. With strong competition from apps like Snapchat, WhatsApp and Instagram, Twitter must find new ways to be attractive for advertisers and investors.
"Reducing costs by reductions is always tough, but a better focus on execution and innovation will help them in the long run," Blau concluded.
Rationalizing the bills is also in order, as the costs and expenses for the company went up 37 percent in the last year, to a total of $633 million. Voices from inside the social media business claim that Twitter was supposed to expand its headquarters in San Francisco. The previously planned 100,000-square-foot expansion is now halted indefinitely.
"My focus is to build teams that move fast, and learn faster," tweets from Mr. Dorsey read on Monday. "We're working hard at Twitter to focus our roadmap on a few things we can make really great."
Twitter refused to comment on the issue of possible downsizing.
