Twitter founder Jack Dorsey tweets apology after Elon Musk’s mass layoffs

Jack Dorsey issued an apology to Twitter employees past and present a day after its new owner, Elon Musk, fired half the social media company’s 7,500-member workforce.

“Folks at Twitter past and present are strong and resilient,” the Twitter founder tweeted Saturday morning. “They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment. 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.”

By June 30, 2013, shortly before the social media company went public, Twitter had approximately 2,000 employees, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. That figure nearly tripled by the time Musk acquired the company on Oct. 27 and then immediately started axing executives and staff.

The cuts reportedly affected an estimated 3,700 jobs across the micro-blogging platform, including more than 900 in California.

“I am grateful for, and love, everyone who has ever worked on Twitter,” Dorsey continued. “I don’t expect that to be mutual in this moment...or ever…and I understand.”

Dorsey concluded his post with a blue heart, a nod to the Twitter logo and the emoji used by many this week as a show of support for those forced to exit the company en masse.

Musk tweeted late Friday that there was no choice but to cut the jobs “when the company is losing over $4M/day.”

Dorsey, who is still an indirect shareholder for the site, stepped down as Twitter’s CEO last November but remained on the board until late May, just one month after the company announced it had agreed to sell to Musk for $44 billion.

The weeks that followed were rife with drama. The Tesla tycoon almost immediately tried to back out of the deal, arguing the company did not provide an accurate tally of bots and spam accounts on the platform. Musk in July attempted to renege entirely, triggering Twitter to file a lawsuit to force him to follow through.

The legal issue was resolved without further action when Musk took over the company earlier this month.