Twitter halts majority of hiring as Elon Musk takeover begins to take shape
As Musk's acquisition of the social media giant picks up steam, Twitter announced a partial hiring freeze and the departure of top executives.
Twitter will pause most hiring starting this week ahead of Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of the company. The move comes as executives flee the social media platform due to their objections to Musk’s stated intent to reinvigorate the platform with pro-free speech policies.
Fox Business reported Thursday that the hiring freeze will not impact business-critical roles, according to a Twitter spokesperson who spoke to the publication.
The Twitter representative said that the social media giant will cut “non-labor” spending to ensure that it is being “responsible and efficient.”
The move comes as Twitter's general manager of the consumer product division, Kayvon Beykpour, and revenue product lead, Bruce Falck are departing the company after being instructed to leave by CEO Parag Agrawal.
Beykpour, who worked for the company for seven years, confirmed the news in a Twitter thread on Thursday, stating that it wasn’t his decision to depart the company.
“The truth is that this isn’t how and when I imagined leaving Twitter, and this wasn’t my decision,” he said. “Parag asked me to leave after letting me know that he wants to take the team in a different direction.”
The truth is that this isn’t how and when I imagined leaving Twitter, and this wasn’t my decision. Parag asked me to leave after letting me know that he wants to take the team in a different direction.
— Kayvon Beykpour (@kayvz) May 12, 2022
Beykpour who expressed his disappointment in the decision, said that he was proud that his team “changed the perception around Twitter’s pace of innovation,” and "shifted the culture internally to make bigger bets, move faster, and eliminate sacred cows.”
“I hope and expect that Twitter’s best days are still ahead of it,” he said. “Twitter is one of the most important, unique and impactful products in the world. With the right nurturing and stewardship, that impact will only grow.”
Falck, who has been with Twitter for five years, made a similar thread thanking his team for their hard work.
“We upgraded our ad serving, prediction, analytics, attribution, billing, API, and many more systems, substantially improving our reliability and scalability,” he said. “Everything this team has done and will do sits on the shoulders of the giants that did this work - those dedicated IC engineers who seldom see the spotlight or get the recognition they deserve. The unsung heroes that make Goldbird (and Twitter) what it is.”
I wanted to take a moment to thank all the teams and partners I’ve been lucky enough to work with during the past 5 years. Building and running these businesses is a team sport
— bruce.falck() 🦗 (@boo) May 12, 2022
Musk is expected to take over as Twitter’s interim CEO after his deal closes later this year, which remains subject to the approval of Twitter stockholders, the receipt of applicable regulatory approvals, and the satisfaction of closing conditions, Fox Business reported.
As detailed by Rebel News, Musk said that he intends to reverse the permanent ban on President Donald Trump when he takes over the company.
“I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump,” Musk said. “I think that was a mistake, because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.”
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