Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey said on Saturday that he was responsible for the company’s situation that has resulted in the layoff of 50 percent of the workforce under new owner Elon Musk.
Dorsey posted an apology on Twitter for “growing the company size too quickly,” which he claimed was the cause of the company’s massive layoffs following Musk’s official takeover last month.
“I realize many are angry with me. I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly. I apologize for that,” he said in
the post.“I am grateful for, and love, everyone who has ever worked on Twitter. I don’t expect that to be mutual in this moment … or ever … and I understand,” Dorsey added.
Dorsey made the statement after the New York Post
reported on Saturday that “everyone at Twitter hates him now,” citing anonymous sources who claimed that employees blamed Dorsey for Twitter’s situation.
Twitter had 7,500 employees when Musk officially acquired the company on Oct. 28. Its employees filed a class-action lawsuit on Nov. 3, alleging Twitter violated federal law by failing to provide enough notice of planned layoffs.
Twitter Suffers Massive Losses
Musk said Saturday that all terminated staff will get three months of severance pay, which he said is “50 percent more than legally required.” He claimed that layoffs were the only viable option as the company has been suffering massive losses.“Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately, there is no choice when the company is losing over [$4 million per] day,” the Tesla CEO said
on Twitter.Dorsey, who stepped down from Twitter’s Board of Directors in May this year, has been outspoken in his support for Musk taking over the company,
writing in April that Musk was the “singular solution” he trusts.
“Elon’s goal of creating a platform that is ‘maximally trusted and broadly inclusive’ is the right one,” Dorsey said at the time. “This is also paraga’s [former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal’s] goal, and why I chose him.”
Dorsey
retained his 2.4 percent stake in the social media platform after Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of the company. He rolled over his more than 18 million shares in Twitter, valued at about $1 billion when the company became private.
This means that Dorsey will remain one of Twitter’s largest shareholders, second only to Musk himself and Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Al Saud, who rolled over his
34.948 million shares of Twitter, valued at roughly $1.9 billion, in October.
Katabella Roberts contributed to this report.
