Twitter Announces Mass Layoffs

Struggling with user growth and profitability, Twitter is getting rid of nearly two-and-a-half tweets worth of employees, the social media company announced Tuesday. Business Insider reports Twitter will be laying off 336 employees—about 8% of its workforce—largely from the engineering department. "We feel strongly that engineering will move much faster with a smaller and nimbler team," cofounder and new CEO Jack Dorsey wrote in an email sent to employees. "And the rest of the organization will be streamlined in parallel." According to the Wall Street Journal, this is the first instance of mass layoffs in the company's nine-year history and comes after its workforce grew 24% in the past year.

The New York Times reports Twitter stocks rose approximately 5% Tuesday in the wake of the downsizing news. But the Journal points out shares are still down 16% this year, and the company remains unprofitable. Twitter's user growth has stagnated lately, and advertisers—who account for most of the company's revenue—don't like the platform as much as Google or Facebook, the Times reports. According to Business Insider, the company plans to pay out $10 million to $20 million in severance packages as part of the layoffs. "This isn't easy. But it is right," Dorsey wrote to employees. "The world needs a strong Twitter, and this is another step to get there." (More Twitter stories.)