As billionaire Elon Musk is on a mission to complete the $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter, the social media company is going through its own set of internal changes.
Two Twitter executives, Kayvon Beykpour, head of consumer product, and Bruce Falck, revenue product lead, are leaving the company while a hiring freeze is put in place, according to CNBC News.
Beykpour took to Twitter to reveal that it wasn’t his decision to leave the company but CEO Parag Agrawal’s.
“Parag asked me to leave after letting me know that he wants to take the team in a different direction,” he wrote.
“The truth is that this isn’t how and when I imagined leaving Twitter, and this wasn’t my decision,” Beykpour added. He was on paternity leave when he received the news, he noted in his tweets.
“While I’m disappointed, I take solace in a few things: I am INSANELY proud of what our collective team achieved over the last few years, and my own contribution to this journey,” Beykpour said.
Falck also took to Twitter to thank his team but didn’t directly address the circumstances regarding his departure.
Jay Sullivan, vice president of consumer products, will fill Beykpour’s role at the company for the time being, according to an internal memo shared with Twitter employees, reported by The New York Times.
“It’s critical to have the right leaders at the right time,” Agrawal said in the memo, adding that Sullivan’s “product vision, ability to inspire, move quickly and drive change is what Twitter needs now, and in the future.”
According to TechCrunch, the company also confirmed that a hiring freeze was in place.
“Effective this week, we are pausing most hiring and backfills, except for business-critical roles. We are also pulling back on non-labor costs to ensure we are being responsible and efficient,” a Twitter spokesperson said.
In an effort to acquire funding to buy Twitter, Musk told banks he would “crack down on executive and board pay” to cut down on costs, as well as develop ways of monetizing tweets, according to a Reuters report.