Twilio founder and CEO Jeff Lawson, center, reacts after ringing the opening bell to celebrate Twilio’s initial public offering, at the New York Stock Exchange, June 23, 2016, in New York City.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Twilio, a corporate communications tech giant headquartered in San Francisco, has laid off 11% of its staff as part of a broader company restructuring — a move that could eliminate more than 800 employees.
The restructuring was approved by the company’s board of directors Monday, according to a SEC filing published Wednesday, as first reported by CNBC. In total, the company employed 7,867 people as of December 2021. (A Twilio spokesperson declined to provide a current employee headcount.)
In a letter made public by the filing to Twilio staff — or Twilions, as CEO Jeff Lawson writes — Lawson takes responsibility for the company’s accelerated growth and, consequently, this layoff round. The tech industry has pulled back on its pandemic-era expansion amid larger economic headwinds and investor concerns, prompting layoffs and hiring freezes.
“Twilio has grown at an astonishing rate over the past couple years,” he writes in the letter. “It was too fast, and without enough focus on our most important company priorities.”
In August, Twilio released a third-quarter forecast that missed analyst estimates, causing its stock to plummet. Lawson, speaking to CNBC, said that the company is headed toward profitability in 2023.
Laid-off employees will receive 12 weeks of severance pay, plus an additional week for every year worked at Twilio, Lawson says. Employees will also “receive the full value of Twilio’s next stock vest.” And in a rare acknowledgment of its employees with work visas, Lawson said the company will “be giving those team members even more support to hopefully minimize the disruption to them and their families.”
Twilio is a cloud communications company, providing messaging systems for businesses like Lyft, Netflix and Airbnb.
The company estimates that the restructuring will cost it between $70 million and $90 million.
