Home » US business news • US Employment News » Communications firm Twilio to cut more than 900 staff

Communications firm Twilio to cut more than 900 staff

By Nithya Bose in US business news, posted September 16, 2022

Communications platform Twilio will eliminate nearly 11 percent of jobs and restructure the company in a drive for profitability after a rapid period of growth.

In a letter to employees, CEO Jeff Lawson stated that the layoffs will mostly hit sales strategy, research, and administrative personnel.

Its staff has increased over the last year, rising to 8,510 at the end of June from 6,334 a year earlier, which means around 930 staff will be let go.

He said the people affected work in areas of the firm where operations are more effective and where customers can “succeed without as much human intervention.”

He wrote: “Twilio has grown at an astonishing rate over the past couple [of] years. It was too fast.”

“At our scale, being profitable will make us stronger.”

“I take responsibility for those decisions, as well as the difficult decision to do this layoff.”

The San Francisco-based company is known for its direct-to-consumer text messaging.

It is now planning an expansion into the larger market for customer service tools to more aggressively compete with Salesforce and Adobe.

Twilio has recently acquired Identity verification firm Boku Identity, toll-free messaging service Zipwhip, and consumer data supplier Segment.

Need Career Advice? Get employment skills advice at all levels of your career

Twilio plans to incur restructuring-related expenses of between $70 million and $90 million.

Its stock is down 73 percent this year since the current stock market downturn has disproportionately harmed unproductive software businesses.

In August, it predicted a 31 percent increase in sales to $970 million in the current quarter and a loss of up to 43 cents a share, which was worse than analysts expected.

Source: Bloomberg

Follow us on YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.