San Francisco: Parag Agrawal has shaken up Twitter, including the firing of consumer products leader Kayvon Beykpour and chief revenue product Bruce Falck, as the microblogging platform prepares for the $44 billion acquisition of Elon Musk to be closing later this fall.
In a memo sent to employees, Agrawal said there is now a hiring freeze and Twitter will also halt spending in most areas.
“Having the right leaders at the right time is critical. Jay Sullivan, currently Bluebird’s interim general manager, has shown it powerfully. Therefore, I have decided to make Jay the permanent general manager of Bluebird,” Agrawal said in the memo seen by The Verge.
“Bluebird” is Twitter’s consumer products team and “Goldbird” is the team that creates revenue-generating products.
“Staff” refers to Twitter’s senior leadership team.
Agrawal said that Beykpour will leave Twitter.
“Under his leadership, our product has evolved and grown significantly… I know I speak for all of us when I say we are deeply appreciative of his tremendous impact,” said the Indian-born CEO.
Falck will leave Twitter and “we will be opening the search for a new Goldbird GM.”
“Under his leadership, we rebuilt our ad server and laid the groundwork to evolve our ad business to become more performance-based. Meanwhile, the Goldbird organization reports to Jay Sullivan,” Agrawal said.
Starting this week, Twitter will pause most hiring and replenishments, except for business-critical roles as determined by ‘staff’ members.
“We will also review all extended offers to determine criticality and those that should be withdrawn. We are not planning company-wide layoffs, but leaders will continue to make changes to their organizations to improve efficiency as needed,” Agrawal said in the memo.
Twitter said it is also reducing expenses for contractors and consulting, travel and events, marketing, real estate footprint, on-premises and public cloud-related infrastructure expenses, and other operating costs.
“Next week, we will hold a virtual off-site meeting with our Global Leadership Team (GLT) to drive greater cohesion and focus, and strengthen our collective plans to best support all of you,” added Agrawal, who may also be asked to go once Musk takes over.