Twitter’s fate has been up in the air for weeks now as the company has been the center of rumors concerning a possible acquisition. Now, Bloomberg reports that Twitter is planning “widespread” job cuts to be announced as soon as this week.
Citing “sources familiar with the matter,” today’s report says that Twitter is planning to cut about 8 percent of its workforce, which is around 300 people. While these plans are still “fluid and the number could change,” Jack Dorsey cut 8 percent of Twitter’s workforce last year when he took over as chief executive officer, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility
Throughout the course of the past few weeks, it has been rumored that Twitter is exploring a possible sale to a handful of companies. The Walt Disney Company, Alphabet, and Salesforce were all rumored to have an interest in Twitter at one point or another, but now all three companies have now backed out. While a few whispers claimed that Apple too was involved in Twitter acquisition talk, nothing concrete ever supported that.
Twitter’s recent drama comes as it continues to struggle with monetization. Twitter has failed to produce a net profit in its 11 quarters as a public company, despite having over 313 million monthly active users. Services like Instagram and Snapchat are also edging Twitter out in terms of growth.
Twitter will likely announce the job cuts during its earnings call this Thursday. The company plans to report its earnings at 4AM PT/7AM ET, with a conference call to follow at 5AM PT/8AM ET. Twitter says the reasoning for its odd timing for release is to avoid conflict with other companies.
It’s certainly not out of the question that Twitter will announce a buyer this Thursday, but given the timing of its release and more recent reports, it seems that job cuts will be the company’s solution to its monetization struggles.
