Post the recent failure of its possible acquisition, Twitter is now looking forward to another round of layoffs to slim down its operations, reports Bloomberg. The micro-blogging platform is gearing up to repeat history and let go of over 8 percent or around 300 employees this very week.
Twitter Inc. is planning widespread job cuts, to be announced as soon as this week. Planning for the cuts is still fluid and the number could change,
report sources privy of the matter.
These reported layoffs, which will most likely be true, are expected to affect the sales teams of the company. Twitter is currently losing humongous sums of money and plans to cut down the spending on slowed-down sales operations.
Twitter is likely to make the news of job reductions official before its oh-so-quiet third quarter earnings call on Thursday. Instead of following its usual 1 PM schedule, the company plans to downplay its lower-than-expected numbers and report its earnings at 4 a.m PST(or 4:30 p.m IST). This change in the schedule only begs us to question the already flailing integrity of the social media platform.
For the third quarter, analysts and researchers predict Twitter’s earnings to be flat and nothing to be excited about as usual. The company is expected to report an earnings-per-share of 9 cents on revenue of $606.5 million when compared to an EPS of 10 cents on revenue of $602 million. If the userbase of the grew on the back of live events and frivolous character limit changes or not, still remains to be seen.
As we’ve insistently stated time and time again, Twitter has been lacking in user and revenue growth and it shows no signs of revival as of now. Ever since the exit of Dick Costolo last year, the reigns of Twitter have been handed over to co-founder Jack Dorsey(who also heads the digital payments firm Square). He started his term as the chief executive by relieving about 8 percent of their staff personal of their duties.
For the past year or so, Jack Dorsey has been trying his level best to turn around the company’s growth and user figures by introducing numerous changes. These changes have not only been aimed at making user experience and onboarding easier but also focus on expanding the scope of content on the platform. But, it has only resulted in grave disappointment and internal strife between the board members, especially Dorsey and co-founder Ev Williams.
If you haven’t been living under a rock, you’d know that Twitter was on the market for a potential sale. The transaction, however, didn’t go through as all potential suitors including Google, Disney, Apple and later even Salesforce tapped out of the bidding process. They’ve all cited hate speech and troll problem of the platform as a major cause for them pulling out of the deal.
Due to its marred status in the technology ecosystem, the investors have given up hope for the revival and growth of Twitter. The company’s stock prices have also tanked over 40 percent in the last year, from over $30 to the meager $18 at which it is currently trading. This has resulted in a loss of over $12 billion in market cap, which makes it worth less than its Chinese counterpart Weibo. The company is currently valued at $18 billion.
