Twitter lays off 30% of its talent acquisition team

Twitter lays off 30% of its talent acquisition team

Two months into a hiring freeze across the board, Twitter let go of 30% of its talent acquisition staff. A spokesman for Twitter acknowledged the layoffs but would not specify how many staff were impacted.

The corporate spokesman also said that workers would get severance compensation (but refused to provide any details) and that owing to the fall in recruiting, the remaining recruitment team will given new priorities. Except for the most important positions, Twitter is halting the majority of recruiting and backfilling.

Hiring restrictions are common at times of significant acquisitions, but apart from Elon Musk’s upcoming $44 billion purchase of Twitter, the unprofitable social media site has been experiencing unstable financial conditions. Over 30,000 software professionals are said to have lost their jobs in the previous two months, and social networks aren’t exempt from the market slump. In a period of economic turmoil, rivals like Snap and Meta have also taken precautions to limit their overhead. Just last week, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, advised staff to be ready to work more with less resources.

Since Parag Agrawal succeeded Jack Dorsey as CEO of Twitter, the company’s senior team has seen several significant changes. Agrawal got go of revenue product lead Bruce Falck and consumer GM Keyvon Beykpour after the agreement with Elon Musk was made public.

Since beginning his new position in December, Agrawal has made a number of additional significant staff moves. Dantley Davis, Twitter’s chief design officer, and Michael Montano, its director of engineering, were fired at the time. A month later, Twitter lost two more top executives: Peiter Zatko, head of security, and Rinki Sethi, chief information security officer.

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“Some have been asking why a ‘lame-duck’ CEO would make these changes if we’re getting acquired anyway,” Agrawal tweeted. “While I expect the deal to close, we need to be prepared for all scenarios and always do what’s right for Twitter.”

Agrawal himself will also likely lose his short-lived CEO role if Musk’s acquisition goes through.

In a recent all-hands call with Twitter employees, Musk said that he’s not concerned with what title he’d have at the company, but that he wants to be heavily involved in product. At that meeting, Twitter employees voiced concerns about potential layoffs in response to the macroeconomic environment.

“Right now, costs exceed revenue. That’s not a great situation,” he said regarding potential Twitter layoffs. As CEO of Tesla, Musk just laid off nearly 200 employees and shuttered the company’s San Mateo, California office amid broader job reductions. Still, it’s unclear what influence Musk would have on Twitter’s workforce if the deal even closes. Twitter lays off 30% of its talent acquisition team