Twitter Mostly Freezes Hiring, Loses Two Executives

• Twitter is pausing “most” hiring besides “business-critical roles” Twitter confirmed to Insider Thursday. 
• Elon Musk is set to assume control of Twitter and has a specific vision for the company. 
• But the pause comes amid a larger crunch in markets and in tech writ large. 

Twitter is freezing the majority of hiring and backfilling positions as of this week — except for “business critical roles” — a spokesperson confirmed to Insider on Thursday. 

“Effective this week, we are pausing most hiring and backfills, except for business-critical roles,” the spokesperson said. 

Two top executives are also leaving the company, Reuters and Bloomberg reported Thursday, and which the spokesperson confirmed. 

“We are pulling back on non-labor costs to ensure we are being responsible and efficient,” the statement to Insider added.

Some of these changes were announced to Twitter employees in an internal memo, the record of which was obtained by Bloomberg and others. 

Aside from the hiring freeze, Bloomberg reported that CEO Parag Agrawal told employees in the memo that the company had not met goals related to making money and building audience. 

“Leaders will continue making changes to their organizations to improve efficiencies as needed,” Agrawal reportedly said in the memo.

He also noted that Twitter would take back some job offers already given to candidates and attempt to limit spending on things like travel and consulting. 

The two executives set to leave are Kayvon Beykpour and Bruce Falck. 

Beykpour is general manager of Twitter, and he led teams including engineering, design, and customer service, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Falck is revenue product lead and has been at the company since 2017, per his LinkedIn.

They both confirmed their impending departures on Twitter.

“Interrupting my paternity leave to share some final @twitter-related news: I’m leaving the company after over 7 years,” Beykpour wrote. 

—Kayvon Beykpour (@kayvz) May 12, 2022

“This wasn’t my decision,” he added. “Parag asked me to leave after letting me know that he wants to take the team in a different direction.”

Falck thanked his teams in his Tweet. His bio says “unemployed.” 

—bruce.falck() 🦗 (@boo) May 12, 2022

Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover isn’t finalized yet, and one firm posited he could change the price of the deal amid larger market trends, Insider reported Monday.

His plans for the platform are reportedly wide-ranging, from layoffs to hiring thousands of people, according to Bloomberg and the New York Times. 

Before that even happens, however, the interim period of waiting for him to assume control, “has left Twitter employees in a lurch, as many don’t know whether the projects or teams they are working on will be prioritized under new leadership,” Bloomberg wrote.

Broadly speaking, things are tough in tech right now. Facebook also is freezing hiring, fintechs are laying people off left and right, crypto is tanking in disastrous fashion, and there’s likely a “bumpy road” ahead for tech stocks, Insider previously reported.