Twitter to lay off 8% of workforce as CEO Dorsey looks to revive growth

The layoffs are mainly in the company's product and engineering functions

Twitter Inc said it would lay off up to 336 employees, or about 8% of its global workforce, as part of a plan to streamline operations.

The layoffs, mainly in the company's product and engineering functions, come about a week after the microblogging service provider appointed co-founder Jack Dorsey its permanent chief executive. (http://1.usa.gov/1Gbb31A)

"We feel strongly that engineering will move much faster with a smaller and nimbler team, while remaining the biggest percentage of our workforce," Dorsey said in a letter to employees. "And the rest of the organization will be streamlined in parallel."
 

Shares of Twitter, which had about 4,100 employees globally as of June 30, rose 1.5% to $29.18 in premarket trading on Tuesday.

The company said it expected to incur about $10 million-$20 million in severance costs and $5 million-$15 million in restructuring charges. Twitter expects to record most of these pretax restructuring charges in the quarter ending Dec. 31, it said.

The company is working to rekindle growth after its latest quarterly results in July revealed the slowest rise in monthly average users since it went public in 2013.

Technology news website Re/code first reported the planned layoffs on Oct. 9.

Twitter also said it expected its third-quarter revenue to be at or above the higher end of its forecast range of $545 million-$560 million. The company estimated its adjusted EBITDA at or above the higher end its forecast range of $110 million-$115 million.

Twitter will report its third-quarter results on Oct. 27 after the market closes.

Up to Monday's close, the company's shares had fallen about 20% this year.