Twitter said to plan job cuts, slimming down to go it alone

SAN FRANCISCO — Having failed to sell itself, Twitter is planning to fire about 8 per cent of its workforce as the struggling social-media company prepares to go it alone for the time being.

Twitter may eliminate about 300 people, the same percentage it did last year when co-founder Mr Jack Dorsey took over as chief executive officer.

An announcement about job reductions may come before Twitter releases third-quarter earnings on Thursday (Oct 27).

Twitter, which loses money, is trying to control spending as sales growth slows. The company recently hired bankers to explore a sale, but the companies that had expressed interest in bidding (Salesforce.com, The Walt Disney and Alphabet Inc) later backed out from the process.

Twitter’s losses and 40 per cent fall in its share price during the past 12 months have made it more difficult for the company to pay its engineers with stock. That has made it harder for Twitter to compete for talent with giant rivals like Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook. Reducing employee numbers would relieve some of this pressure.

Twitter shares were down less than 1 per cent in early trading in New York to US$17.95. BLOOMBERG