Yahoo Finance’s Daniel Howley joins the Live show to discuss Twitter’s recent round of job cuts.

Video Transcript

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JULIE HYMAN: Twitter shedding even more jobs over the weekend, cutting at least 200 employees, according to the "New York Times." Those cuts affecting roughly 10% of the already slimmed down social media site's estimated staff of 2000. Before Twitter's purchase by Elon Musk, the company employed around 7,500 people. Here with more is Yahoo Finance's Dan Howley. Dan, we were asking in our morning meeting, who's left at the company? Because these layoffs included some of the people who were helping architect the newer strategy.

DAN HOWLEY: That's right. Yeah, that's right, Julie. You're referring to Esther Crawford, and she was one of the people that was trying to get the new remote payment system up and running, trying to get the Twitter Blue subscription up and running. She was the one that famously referenced sleeping on the floor at Twitter's offices, had a sleeping bag and a eye mask on. And so she's apparently gone now in this fresh round of layoffs.

And this-- you know, as you said, there were around 7,500 employees at first. Elon Musk cut that in half. And now we're looking at the number left, it's around 1,500 maybe. There have been cuts across numerous organizations, whether that's engineering, HR. They've shut down different data centers. So, you know, this really is-- I mean, there's bills that are being unpaid.

Apparently, last week, this is according to The Verge, their Slack app was down. Some people say that it was routine maintenance. Others questioning whether or not it's because the bills weren't being paid. You know, Elon Musk had said that they may end up just being flat for the year as far as revenue goes. Not losing, not making money, but being just kind of on the flat. And you got to wonder if that's really the case when he's continuing to do these layoffs, or, as some have predicted, that he's starting to try to install a new kind of Twitter structure that he is personally responsible for and he has put into place.

BRAD SMITH: And, Dan, the layoffs coming after a tumultuous week at Twitter. We know that there is a lot that's been taking place at the company. And so within that, what more is still at play over at the firm as they're trying to reassure its own employees that it has enough people to move forward, but also trying to monitor its own finances?

DAN HOWLEY: Yeah, I mean, look, this-- I don't envy anybody that works at Twitter right now. I think that this is a company that Musk tweets out saying that the efficiency is improving, says it's never been used as much as it's used now. He regularly tweets about that. But, you know, I mean, just looking from it-- from the outside perspective and from the various reports, things have been cut so badly that, I believe, the "New York Times" had said people had to bring in their own toilet paper to the Twitter headquarters.

There's different offices that are being closed just because either their bills aren't being paid, or it's a means to ensure that they can get the balance sheets-- or Elon Musk can get the balance sheet a little more tighter to his side of things. So it's got to be, from an inside perspective, a difficult place to work at this point. This was one of the social media companies where people wanted to flock to.

Yes, the structure was never quite tight, and they had their own issues. They were never able to fully monetize as well as something like a Facebook or an Instagram. But at least it was something that people seemed to want to work for. And at this point, I mean, if you're trying to hire engineers, sure, there have been layoffs in tech companies, but there's still plenty of opportunities for engineers around the country. You know, you got to wonder whether or not you would want to work in a place like that, where there's constantly a threat of layoffs, even on the weekend.

BRAD SMITH: Yeah, roll up with your own toilet paper roll isn't exactly a talent acquisition strategy. Yahoo Finance's own Dan Howley. Thanks so much for taking the time here this morning.