Twitter executives fired amid Musk purchase turmoil

Twitter confirms some departures of key personnel who performed critical functions for the business
Twitter fired two of its top executives on Friday, the latest sign of internal turmoil amid Tesla billionaire Elon Musk’s planned purchase of the company.

One of Twitter’s CEOs, Kayvon Beykpour, is leaving after 7 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.” Bruce Falck, head of revenue and products at Twitter, 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’s been amazing. There’s so much more to do so get back to work, can’t wait to see what you build,” Falck tweeted.

Recruitment on hold

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 that we are being responsible and efficient.” Beykpour was Twitter’s chief consumer officer, leading the design, research, product, engineering, customer service, and operations teams, according to his Twitter biography of him. Co-founder of live-streaming app Periscope, Beykpour joined Twitter when the social media company bought his startup in 2015.

“I hope and wish that the best days of Twitter are still ahead. Twitter is one of the most important, unique, and impactful products in the world. With proper care and management, that impact will only grow,” he said on Twitter.

Beykpour did not immediately respond to a message for comment.

In a note 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 on Thursday. That’s just 3 cents above Musk’s offer price of $45.20 a share.