Twitter planning layoffs: report

[SAN FRANCISCO] Twitter will lay off employees next week as freshly-returned chief Jack Dorsey pushes for a leaner operation focused on winning users, tech news website Re/code reported Friday.

Layoffs will be spread across the entire San Francisco-based company and will likely include engineers, which account for about half of Twitter's approximately 4,200 employees, according to Re/code.

The job cuts reportedly come as the engineering teams is being reorganised of the engineering team at the one-to-many messaging service.

Re/code cited unnamed sources in its report, while Twitter declined to comment on what it referred to as rumour and speculation.

Twitter is betting that the second coming of co-founder Dorsey as chief executive will bring blockbuster growth that has eluded its grasp and disappointed investors.

Mr Dorsey, who had been interim CEO since June, returned permanently to the helm last week while also remaining chief executive of Square, the digital payments firm he founded.

Twitter quickly become a global sensation after its launch in 2006, but the social media platform's growth has slowed and it has yet to turn a profit.

Mr Dorsey ran Twitter in 2007-2008 and served as interim chief executive for the third quarter after Dick Costolo resigned in June.

Twitter shares slipped nearly four per cent to US$29.74 in after-market trades.

AFP