Twitter lays off 10% of current workforce, says New York Times report

Twitter Inc has laid off at least 200 employees, or about 10% of its workforce, the New York Times reported late on Sunday, in its latest round of job cuts since Elon Musk took over the micro-blogging site last October.

The layoffs on Saturday night impacted product managers, data scientists and engineers who worked on machine learning and site reliability, which helps keep Twitter's various features online, the NYT report said, citing people familiar with the matter. Twitter did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The company has a headcount of about 2,300 active employees, according to Musk last month.

The latest job cuts follow a mass layoff in early November, when Twitter laid off about 3,700 employees in a cost-cutting measure by Musk, who had acquired the company for $44 billion.

Musk said in November that the service was experiencing a "massive drop in revenue" as advertisers pulled spending amid concerns about content moderation.
Twitter recently started sharing revenue from advertisements with some of its content creators.

Earlier in the day, The Information reported that the social media platform laid off dozens of employees on Saturday, aiming to offset a plunge in revenue.
Esther Crawford, in charge of the social network's product development, was one of the employees let go, according to the Times.

Crawford was among the few remaining Twitter executives from before its October acquisition by Elon Musk who had not resigned or been fired.

Head of the new Twitter Blue verification program, she had been a staunch supporter of Musk and the company, going so far as to retweet a photo of herself sleeping in a sleeping bag at her workplace.

"The worst take you could have from watching me go all-in on Twitter 2.0 is that my optimism or hard work was a mistake," she wrote on Twitter.

"Those who jeer & mock are necessarily on the sidelines and not in the arena. I'm deeply proud of the team for building through so much noise & chaos."

Agencies