Twitter to Cut Up to 8% of Workforce

Twitter Inc. said it would slash up to 336 jobs, or 8% of its global workforce, as the messaging service continues to struggle with user growth.

In a securities filing, Twitter noted the restructuring is "part of an overall plan to organize around the company's top product priorities and drive efficiencies." It said it expects to spend the money it saves on "its most important priorities to drive growth."

In the filing, Twitter also noted that it expects revenue and a measure of its adjusted earnings to come in above the high end of its previously forecast range for the third quarter.

Shares of Twitter, which have declined 20% in the past three months, rose 3.1% premarket.

The move comes a week after co-founder Jack Dorsey was named full-time chief executive at the social-media company, handing him back the reins of the company he founded while allowing him to remain as the CEO of another company he started, payments service Square Inc.

Twitter has struggled with user growth, and investors have grown restless with the company's inability to resonate with average Internet users. Twitter claimed 316 million monthly active users as of June 30, but that number grew just 2.6% from the previous quarter.

People close to the company who spoke with The Wall Street Journal last week amid reports the layoffs were looming said the move would be a long time coming. For years, there had been internal debates about the need to pare hiring at Twitter as bloated staff levels slowed progress.

Twitter had a global head count of 4,100 as of June 30, roughly half of whom are engineers, while its user base is 316 million monthly active users. By comparison, social network Facebook Inc. has 10,995 employees and nearly 1.5 billion active users.

On Tuesday, Twitter said it expects to incur about $10 million to $20 million of severance costs.

The company has remained unprofitable as it invested in new data centers and talent. The company in July reported a loss of $136.7 million for its latest quarter.

Write to Nathan Becker at nathan.becker@wsj.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 13, 2015 09:05 ET (13:05 GMT)

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