Twitter is slashing 9% of its global workforce

1 months ago

Social media giant Twitter has announced a major shake-up of its business, and is cutting 9% of its global workforce.

The San Francisco-based firm said the restructuring would focus on its “sales, partnerships and marketing efforts” in order to become profitable next year.

It came as the firm announced that revenues rose 8% year on year in the third quarter to 616 million US dollars (£502 million).

The firm made a net loss of 102 million US dollars (£83 million) in the three months to the end of September, an improvement on last year’s loss of 132 million US dollars (£108 million) for the period.

Advertising revenues slowed to 6% growth in the third quarter to 545 million US dollars (£444 million), easing back from 18% growth in the second quarter.

Chief executive Jack Dorsey said the company was making the “necessary changes” to ensure it was primed for long-term growth.

“We see a significant opportunity to increase growth as we continue to improve the core service,” he added. “The key drivers of future revenue growth are trending positive, and we remain confident in Twitter’s future.”

Twitter said it will take a cost hit of around 10 to 20 million US dollars (£8.2 million to £16.3 million) as a result of the restructuring, with the lion’s share of the money being spent on severance payments for staff. It added that as part of the shake-up the firm will move from three sales channels to two.

Anthony Noto, Twitter’s chief financial officer, said: “We’re getting more disciplined about how we invest in the business, and we set a company goal of driving toward GAAP profitability in 2017. Over time, we will look to invest in additional areas, as justified by expected returns and business results.”

The firm said its average monthly active users rose 3% year-on-year in the third quarter to 317 million, while the average daily active user rate rose by 7% over the period.