Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey speaks out after mass layoffs

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey addresses students at a city 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 on Saturday for saying the company was growing “too fast,” a day after the company laid off about half its employees under new owner Elon Musk.

“People at Twitter, past and present, are strong and resilient. You will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment,” Dorsey tweeted. “I realize that many are angry with me. I take responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I scaled up the company too quickly. I apologize for that.”

As of June 30, 2013, just prior to the social media company’s IPO, Twitter had about 2,000 employees, according to filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. By the end of last year, the company had more than 7,500 full-time employees.

After Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk took over Twitter on Oct. 28, the company began severe downsizing. Twitter told employees Thursday night that it would begin laying off employees, according to releases from CNBC.

The cuts affected a total of 983 employees in California, its home state, according to three resignation letters the company sent to local authorities and obtained by CNBC.

Musk wrote in a tweet on Friday afternoon: “In terms of reducing the power of Twitter, sadly there is no choice when the company is losing over $4 million a day. “

Twitter’s reduction in power extended beyond California, and CNBC couldn’t immediately confirm whether Musk’s description is accurate. Losing $4 million a day at the company would translate into an annual loss of around $1.5 billion.

Dorsey co-founded Twitter in 2006 with Noah Glass, Biz Stone and Evan Williams. Dorsey has held the top position twice during the leadership transition and stepped down as CEO last year. The company’s then-Chief Technology Officer, Parag Agrawal, succeeded Dorsey as CEO before leaving the company as part of Musk’s acquisition.

Since then, Dorsey has shifted his focus to exclusively running his payments company, Block, formerly known as Square. He was an outspoken supporter of Musk’s acquisition, tweeting, “This is the way to go… I believe in it with all my heart.”

– CNBC’s Lora Kolodny and Jonathan Vanian contributed to this report.