According to accounts in the New York Times, Twitter has engaged in yet another round of cost-cutting by laying off at least 200 of its employees.
According to the report, the multinational technology corporation had eliminated 2,000 jobs, which is equivalent to a 10% reduction in its workforce.
This is the most recent round of employment cuts to take place at Twitter since Elon Musk, Twitter’s chief executive, took over in October and fired approximately half of the company’s 7,500 employees.
As employees discovered their impending doom, Mr. Musk sent out the following tweet: “Hope you have a good Sunday. This is the first day of the remainder of your life.
After being among those who were let go, Esther Crawford, the chief executive officer of Twitter Payments and the person who managed the Twitter Blue verification subscription model, stated in a tweet that she was “deeply proud of my team.”
And senior product manager Martijn de Kuijper, who created the newsletter tool Revue, which Twitter acquired in 2021, stated that he discovered he had lost his job after being locked out of his work emails.
Lay-offs across tech
The Twitter layoffs are the most recent in a string of layoffs that have occurred in the technology business over the course of the past few months.
Amazon, Microsoft, and Google’s parent company, Alphabet, have between them disclosed tens of thousands of layoffs, but the industry as a whole is experiencing widespread reductions in employment.
More than 10,000 jobs were cut in just eight days at the end of January across six major technology companies, including IBM, Intel, and Spotify, among others.
The staff reductions at Twitter come a month after Reuters reported that the company had made its first interest payment on a bank loan that Mr. Musk had used to finance the acquisition of Twitter.
He acquired possession of the company for a total cost of $44 billion (£37 billion), of which a third, or $13 billion, was funded by loans from financial institutions such as Morgan Stanley and Barclays.
These loans are secured by Twitter, which means that the technology business itself is accountable for the loan repayments rather than Mr. Musk.
It was published by Reuters. In January, Twitter made a payment to the banks totaling approximately $300 million.
In the meantime, there are additional signs that point to the fact that the technology business is having trouble with financing.
It is facing litigation in the United Kingdom brought on by the Crown Estate regarding alleged unpaid rent for its London headquarters, and it is also facing a lawsuit in the United States regarding alleged unpaid rent for its San Francisco headquarters.
In addition, in February, a lawyer who represents more than one hundred former employees who were fired by Twitter stated to the BBC that the number of staff members initiating legal action against the business “goes up daily.”
At the World Government Summit that took place in Dubai earlier this month, Mr. Musk was quoted as saying, “I believe I need to stabilize the organization and just make sure that it is in a financially healthy place.”
“I’m guessing probably towards the end of this year would be good timing to find someone else to run the company, because I think it should be in a stable position around the end of this year,” the current CEO said. “I’m guessing probably towards the end of this year would be good timing to find someone else to run the company.”
