Twitter, Inc. is planning to cut hundreds of jobs, as the company continues to face financial difficulties. The job cuts are expected to be announced before its third-quarter earnings report on October 27.
People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that Twitter is planning to cut about eight percent of its workforce or roughly 300 people. This is the same percentage that the company used to cut jobs last year when Jack Dorsey took over as chief executive officer, the people said.
The people added that the number of jobs to be cut could still change as the planning is still fluid. The people asked not to be identified as the plans are private.
The company has been losing money, failing to earn a net profit in its 11 quarters as a publicly traded entity. The company's share prices have fallen 40 percent in the past 12 months, which made it difficult to pay its engineers with stock.
This also made it harder for Twitter to compete for talent against rivals like Alphabet's Google and Facebook, Inc. Cutting jobs will help the company relieve some of the pressure of paying its engineers.
According to Tech Times, Twitter has been unable to expand its audience and business, despite sustained efforts and shareholder pressure. The plans of selling the company seem to have broken down as well.
The Walt Disney Company, Alphabet, Inc., and Salesforce.com, Inc. were all rumored to be interested in acquiring Twitter, but all have backed out. Softbank was also rumored to be interested in acquiring Twitter, but no evidence supported the rumor.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said his shareholders firmly rejected the prospect of a Twitter buyout. He said the social media company was not "the right fit."
Dorsey took over Twitter in 2015 and despite his effort of optimizing personnel scheme, he was unable to boost Twitter's reach. The company's reach still hasn't expanded beyond the approximately 300 million user mark.
