Twitter fires two top executives and announces a hiring freeze ahead of Elon Musk's acquisition

Two of Twitter’s senior executives were sacked ahead of Elon Musk’s takeover of Tesla. Twitter confirmed both departures and said it is halting most hiring, with the exception of mission-critical positions.

Two of Twitter’s top executives have announced their departure ahead of Tesla entrepreneur Elon Musk’s takeover. Kayvon Beykpour, the general manager of Twitter, is retiring after seven years. CEO Parag Agrawal “asked me to leave after letting me know that he wanted to take the team in a different route,” Beykpour claimed in a series of tweets.

“The truth is that this isn’t how and when I imagined leaving Twitter, and this wasn’t my decision. Parag asked me to leave after letting me know that he wants to take the team in a different direction,”On Twitter, Beykpour stated.

According to his Twitter bio, Beykpour was the general manager of consumer Twitter, overseeing design, research, product, engineering, customer support, and operations teams. Beykpour, a co-founder of the live broadcasting software Periscope, joined Twitter in 2015 after the social media company purchased his startup.

Twitter confirmed both departures and said it is halting most hiring, with the exception of mission-critical positions. “We are pulling down on non-labor costs to ensure we are being responsible and efficient,” it added in a statement.

Agrawal claimed in a note addressed to staff and acknowledged by Twitter that the company had not met growth and revenue targets since investing “aggressively” to boost its user base and income.