Twitter confirmed both departures and said the company is pausing most hiring except for business-critical roles.
Twitter fired two of its top managers on Friday, the latest sign of internal turmoil amid Tesla billionaire Elon Musk’s planned purchase of the company.
A Twitter general manager, Kayvon Beykpour, is leaving after seven years. In a series of tweets Thursday, Beykpour said CEO Parag Agrawal “asked me to leave after letting me know he wants to take the team in a different direction.”
The truth is that this was not how or when I imagined leaving Twitter, and it was not my decision. Parag asked me to leave after telling me that he wants to take the team in a different direction.
— Kayvon Beykpour (@kayvz) May 12, 2022
Bruce Falck, Twitter’s revenue and product leader, was also fired, according to a since-deleted tweet. His Twitter bio now says “unemployed.”
“I dedicate this Tweet to those engineers and thank you ALL for the opportunity to serve alongside you. It has been amazing. There is so much more to do so get back to work, can’t wait to see what you build,” Falck tweeted.
Twitter confirmed both departures and said the company is pausing most hiring except for business-critical roles. In addition, he said in a statement, “we are reducing non-labor costs to ensure we are responsible and efficient.”
Beykpour was the general manager of Twitter for Consumers and led the design, research, product, engineering, and customer service and operations teams, according to his Twitter bio. Co-founder of live streaming app Periscope, Beykpour joined Twitter when the social media company bought his startup in 2015.
“I hope and hope that the best days of Twitter are yet to come. Twitter is one of the most important, unique and impactful products in the world. With proper parenting and management, that impact will only grow,” she said on Twitter.
Beykpour did not immediately respond to a message for comment.
In a memo sent to employees and confirmed by Twitter, Agrawal said Twitter has missed growth and revenue milestones after the company began investing “aggressively” to expand its user base and revenue.
Shares of San Francisco-based Twitter fell 86 cents to $45.23 midday Thursday, more than 20 percent below Musk’s offer price of $54.20 a share.