Twitter lays off 336 employees, with engineering department making the biggest changes

[[152058]]

According to the online version of the Wall Street Journal, Twitter announced on Tuesday that it will lay off up to 336 employees, accounting for 8% of its global workforce, in an effort to prioritize the development of the company's products and improve efficiency.

Twitter included an open letter from CEO Jack Dorsey to employees in its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The full text is as follows:

Teams:

We are in the process of implementing a staff restructuring to put the company on a stronger growth path. Emails like today are usually filled with corporate jargon, so I'll get straight to the point.

The team has been working around the clock to build a simplified and more efficient roadmap for Twitter, Vine, and Periscope. This roadmap is in full swing and will guide the company as it focuses on the experiences that have the most impact. Last week, we launched the first of these experiences with Moments, which is a great start to boldly explore the future of how people will understand what's happening in the world.

The roadmap is also a plan to change the way we work and what we need to do. Product and Engineering will be the most significantly restructured to reflect what we are going to do. We feel strongly that a smaller, more agile team will significantly increase the velocity of Engineering while retaining the largest percentage of employees. The rest of the company will also be streamlined at the same time.

So, we have made the extremely difficult decision: we plan to lay off up to 336 employees across the company. We are taking this step in a way that is respectful to everyone. Twitter will do its best to take good care of every employee affected, provide generous compensation, and help them find new jobs.

Let's take this opportunity to express our gratitude to all of our departing employees, and to honor them by devoting our best efforts to serving everyone who uses Twitter. We are doing this to create a more focused team, and will continue to strengthen that team as we are now able to reinvest in our most impactful products.

Thank you for your trust and understanding. This decision was not easy to make, but it is the right one. The world needs a strong Twitter, and this is another step the company is taking to achieve that goal. As always, please contact me directly with any thoughts and questions.