Shocked Twitter CEO fired 2 big bosses, froze recruitment

Even before Elon Musk’s acquisition deal can be finalized, Twitter is halting most hiring and two senior executives will be leaving the company, a Twitter spokesperson confirmed May 12. The news comes as billionaire Elon Musk is looking to complete a $44 billion deal to buy the company and go private. According to Reuters, Musk previously told banks during the fundraising process that he would cut executives and board salaries, and push Twitter to reduce other costs.

However, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal recently fired two top executives, froze most new hires and said he would cut spending from May 12, when the company announced The social media company tries to change its business trajectory while grappling with the takeover of Elon Musk, the world’s richest man.

Kayvon Beykpour, head of consumer product at Twitter, will be leaving along with chief revenue officer Bruce Falck, a Twitter spokesperson confirmed. Earlier, Reuters reported that Parag CEO Agrawal told employees about the information in an internal email.

In a series of tweets on May 12, Beykpour said leaving Twitter was not his decision. He shared the news of his departure after 7 years at the company: “The truth is this is not how and when I imagine I will leave Twitter, and this is not my decision. Parag asked me to leave after letting me know he wanted to take the Twitter team in a different direction.”

The former Stanford graduate Beykpour – who joined the company Twitter in 2015 – has said little about Musk’s plans for the future. He commended his team for their work on new products and safety controls as worried employees wondered if Musk would return to rattle the site’s expansive content moderation apparatus. or not.

“I’m proud that we changed the perception of Twitter’s speed of innovation, and proud that we changed our internal culture to bet bigger, move faster, and get rid of the bulls.” sacred,” said the Iranian-American technology executive.

Falck tweeted on May 12 to thank the teams he has worked with at Twitter for the past five years, but did not specify the circumstances surrounding his departure. that.

“I’d like to take a moment to thank all the teams and partners I’ve been fortunate to work with over the past five years. Building and running this business is a team sport.” Falck’s post states.

As such, Jay Sullivan will take on both the role of head of product and interim head of revenue. “It’s important to have the right leaders at the right time, and Jay Sullivan demonstrates this powerfully. His product vision, ability to inspire, move quickly and motivate What is pushing change? Twitter needed now and in the future. Therefore, I have decided to choose Jay as the long-term CEO of Twitter,” Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said in an email to employees.

While Parag Agrawal has clarified that there are no plans to lay off employees, leaders could be removed. “We’re not planning company-wide layoffs, but leaders will continue to make changes to their organizations to improve efficiency as needed. As always, performance management will continuing to be a priority at this time at all levels to ensure we have the strongest team possible,” Agrawal noted in the email.

Agrawal also noted that failures in meeting audience and revenue goals were the reason for the departures of these top senior executives. In the email, the Twitter CEO wrote: “At the start of the pandemic in 2020, we decided to invest heavily to deliver massive growth in audience and revenue, and as the one company, we didn’t hit this intermediate goal.”

There are even rumors that the Tesla CEO, once the boss of Twitter, will fire Agrawal and become interim CEO. Responding to a Twitter user, Agrawal recently said that he’s not worried about losing his job, his main concern is the company’s future.

Twitter also confirmed that, effective this week, the company will be suspending all hiring except for critical business roles. Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter was announced last month but still needs shareholder and regulatory backing.