Twitter is making rather significant cuts to its employee numbers after confirming it is to shed 8pc of its staff — approximately 336 people — as part of its efforts to streamline its engineering team.
The potential for staff layoffs 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”.
And now, 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.
What this means for the Irish workforce remains unknown, but it will certainly come as a worry to the staff expected to move into Twitter’s new office space in Cumberland House near Fenian Street in the second half of 2016.
New office space is something the company actually reversed its decision on with a move to its new San Francisco base being cancelled “at the 11th hour” as the company’s global growth slowed down.
Twitter on iPhone image via Shutterstock
