Twitter (TWTR) plans to cut roughly 8 percent of the workforce, or about 300 people, according to multiple reports. The layoffs apparently will follow Twitter's failed attempt to sell the company to Disney, Google, Salesforce and other would-be bidders.
An announcement about the job reductions may come before Twitter releases third-quarter earnings on Thursday, Oct. 27, Bloomberg reported. Multiple news organizations are now speculating that the cuts will likely come before the end of 2016. ChannelE2E has not independently confirmed the layoff reports.
Twitter has spent recent weeks exploring a potential company sale. But potential buyers apparently declined to bid for the embattled social media network. Twitter's growth stalled earlier this year after it exceeded 300 million active monthly users, less than a fifth of Facebook's users and below Facebook's Instagram, Reuters noted on Oct. 21. Speculation about potential layoffs started surfacing at that time.
Twitter could cut costs beyond headcount. Among the variables worth tracking from the first half of 2016:
- Sales and Marketing: Twitter spends about 40 percent of its revenue on sales and marketing, far higher than figures at Yahoo (19 percent), Facebook (15 percent) and Alphabet (12 percent), Reuters estimates.
- R&D: Twitter spends about 28 percent of revenue on R&D, also far higher than figures at Facebook (24 percent), Yahoo (23 percent) and Alphabet (16 percent), Reuters also estimated.
As of June 2016, Twitter had 3,860 employees worldwide -- 40 percent of which were in technical roles. For its Q2 2016 ended on June 30, Twitter revenues were $602 million, up 20 percent from the corresponding quarter last year. The company suffered a $107 million Q2 2016 net loss, though that was less than the $136.6 million net loss in Q2 2015.
Twitter is expected to announce Q3 2016 results before U.S. markets open on Thursday, Oct. 27.
For an ongoing list of technology industry layoffs, see www.ChannelE2E.com/layoffs.
