Twitter to cut hundreds of jobs as it plans turnaround

Twitter is to cut hundreds of jobs from its global workforce as it seeks to cut numbers by 9 per cent .

The cuts, which had been rumoured in recent days, were confirmed in Twitter’s fiscal third-quarter earnings release.

Twitter employs about 200 at its European headquarters in Dublin.

The restructuring will focus mainly on reorganising the firm’s sales, partnerships and marketing, Twitter said.

The company said the restructuring would cost between $10 million and $20 million in cash expenditures, most of which would be severance costs, and $5 million to $10 million of non-cash expenditures, primarily stock-based compensation expenses.

Chief executive Jack Dorsey is trying to turn Twitter around, dragging the company into profitability.

The social platform, which has struggled to keep pace with the growth in active users on Facebook and other services, said monthly active users had grown 3 per cent year on year to 317 million, ahead of what analysts had expected. Average daily active usage was 7 per cent higher year on year, up from 5 per cent in the previous quarter.

Mobile advertising

Advertising revenue rose 6 per cent year on year to $545 million, with mobile advertising accounting for 90 per cent of that total.

However, growth had slowed significantly compared with the 18 per cent recorded in the second quarter of the year and 60 per cent year-on-year growth in the third quarter of 2015. Data licensing and other revenue rose 26 per cent to $71 million.

International revenue grew at a faster pace than the United States, with the latter totalling $374 million and rising 1 per cent, while the former was up 21 per cent at $242 million.

“Our strategy is directly driving growth in audience and engagement, with an acceleration in year-over-year growth for daily active usage, Tweet impressions, and time spent for the second consecutive quarter,” said Mr Dorsey.

“We see a significant opportunity to increase growth as we continue to improve the core service. We have a clear plan, and we’re making the necessary changes to ensure Twitter is positioned for long-term growth.”

Quarterly revenue was 8 per cent higher at $616 million, up 8 per cent year over year and higher than expectations.

Twitter slowed its losses in the three-month period, recording a net loss of $102 million compared with $132 million a year earlier.