Twitter will be letting go of 9 percent of its workforce. The unfortunate move will affect more than 300 employees and is due to the company's continuing slow growth of revenue.
The company will let go of an estimated 350 despite reporting that they slightly exceeded their third quarter estimate. Earnings during the period totalled $616 million thanks to an 8 percent rise in revenues.
Twitter is in a cost-cutting mood after struggling as a stand-alone company, according to Forbes. Roughly the same number of employees were let go last year after Jack Dorsey took over as CEO of the company. As of June this year, Twitter employed 3,860 people. As it stands, that number will dramatically decrease after news of the layoff has been circling a week ago.
A BBC report noted that shares in the company fell by 7 percent early this month. This is seen as a direct result of its failed deal with Salesforce. Other companies such as Google, Alphabet and Disney also balked at buying Twitter.
The company is still hoping to sell and has, in fact, hired bankers to help with its possible sale.
A few hours after announcing the layoff, Twitter revealed that the company is shutting down the Vine video sharing platform. Vine is considered one of the company's failed investments that led to its downward spiral. Vine has seen its active accounts dwindle to half just this year.
"We're getting more disciplined about how we invest in the business, and we set a company goal of driving toward GAAP profitability in 2017," said Anthony Noto, Twitter's CFO in explaining their recent moves.
Dorsey, Twitter's co-founder, stressed that despite the drastic moves, the company still has a clear plan and that they are "making the necessary changes to ensure Twitter is positioned for long-term growth".
Twitter recently sealed a deal with the National Football League allowing the company to show live videos of Thursday night games. Twitter is hoping deals such as this will finally help them break out of their rut.
