Last week, it was reported by multiple sources that a major series of layoffs would be coming to Twitter upon the appointment of co-founder Jack Dorsey as permanent CEO of the company. Dorsey, who is not afraid to make all the necessary changes to Twitter, would be ordering the layoffs on almost all the company's departments, the sources said.
In the second quarter of 2013 before it went public, Twitter had 2,000 employees, and now in the third quarter of 2015, the number of employees has doubled. Over the same period of time, usage of Twitter has decreased by a massive 50 percent, with analysts tagging Twitter as a bloated company.
Just how many employees would be laid off was not known, until now. Dorsey, starting his second stint as Twitter's CEO, is firing a total of 336 employees, which is equivalent to about 8.2 percent of the 4,100 employees that the social network has globally.
"Made tough but necessary decisions that enable Twitter to move with greater focus and reinvest in our growth," said Dorsey in a tweet, with the move seen as a trimming down of a company that has been called by critics as an inefficient one.
Most of the layoffs were in the product functions and engineering divisions of Twitter, though a spokesperson for Twitter confirmed the earlier report that the firings occurred across all departments.
In a note to employees, Dorsey wrote that he believes Twitter's engineering team would be able to work faster with the smaller and nimbler team that it has after the layoffs. The engineering division will remain Twitter's largest one, however, with all other departments to also undergo the same streamlining procedure.
According to Victor Anthony, an analyst for Axiom Capital, Twitter needed to undergo changes to be able to steer its product into the right direction to solve the social network's two major problems, namely increasing user engagement and improving user growth.
Sources said that Dorsey is likely attempting to flatten Twitter's management structure, which would cut costs at the top levels of management and would also make development more streamlined and agile. The sources also said that the layoffs are probably mostly in the middle manager positions, which would greatly reduce the number of people that could claim authority on leadership.
