Twitter Inc. said it is cleaving 30% of its talent-acquisition team, or less than 100 people, as executives seek to cut costs while waiting for an acquisition by Elon Musk to go through.
The layoffs, announced Thursday, seemed inevitable after Twitter TWTR, +1.52% Chief Executive Parag Agrawal said in May the company would suspend hiring to shave costs.
Twitter executives are in the midst of restructuring the company and made the staff reduction to align with business needs, a source familiar with the company’s plans told MarketWatch. Twitter is pausing most hires and backfills, except for business-critical roles, the source said.
See also: Tech companies are shifting to layoffs after a huge ramp up in hiring
The layoffs come as Tesla Inc. TSLA, +5.53% Chief Executive Musk’s $44 billion deal has apparently hit a snag, according to a Washington Post report. Musk’s team has cooled talks after it concluded that Twitter’s figures on spam accounts are not verifiable, sources told the Post.
Earlier Thursday, Twitter said it removes 1 million spam accounts daily in a call with executives during a briefing intended to shed more light on the company’s fake and bot accounts. Musk has pointed to spam on the platform as a reason he is having second thoughts after signing a contract to purchase the social-media platform for more than $44 billion.
“In a nutshell, the Twitter soap opera is clearly coming to some sort of finale over the coming months as Musk makes the decision to stay (with a lower price) or go,” Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives said in a note late Thursday. “We expect more details on the fake account/bot issue over the coming weeks from Musk which will determine the next step in this likely deal negotiations.”
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