Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey speaks out after mass layoffs

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey addresses students during a town hall at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in New Delhi, India, on November 12, 2018.
Anushree Fadnavis Reuters
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey apologized Saturday for growing the company “too quickly,” a day after the company laid off about half of its employees under new owner Elon Musk.
“People on Twitter past and present are strong and resilient. They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment,” Dorsey wrote in a tweet. “I realize that many people are angry with me. I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the size of the company too quickly. I apologize for that.”
As of June 30, 2013, shortly before the social media company went public, Twitter had approximately 2,000 employees, according to documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. At the end of last year, the company reported more than 7,500 full-time employees.
After Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk took ownership of Twitter on October 28, the company began a sharp reduction in its workforce. Twitter informed employees Thursday night that it would begin laying off employees, according to communications obtained by CNBC.
The cuts affected a total of 983 employees in its home state of California, according to three notification letters the company sent to regional governments, which were obtained by CNBC.
Musk wrote in a tweet Friday afternoon, “Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4 million per day. Everyone who walked out was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than required by law .”
Twitter’s reduction in power extended beyond California, and CNBC could not immediately confirm whether Musk’s description is accurate. A loss of $4 million per day at the company would represent an annual loss of around $1.5 billion.
Dorsey co-founded Twitter in 2006 with Noah Glass, Biz Stone and Evan Williams. Dorsey held the top job twice through leadership changes and stepped down as CEO last year. The company’s then-chief technology officer Parag Agrawal succeeded Dorsey as CEO before leaving as part of Musk’s takeover.
Dorsey has since shifted his focus to solely managing his payments company Block, formerly known as Square. He has been an outspoken advocate for Musk’s takeover, writes in a tweet that “This is the right way… I believe it with all my heart.”
— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny and Jonathan Vanian contributed to this report.