Jack Dorsey says he can “understand” if current and former Twitter employees blame him for the state of the company . The co-founder and of Twitter took to the platform on Saturday to say he was to blame for the situation. “Folks at Twitter past and present are strong and resilient. They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment,” Dorsey . “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.”
Dorsey went on to add he was grateful to everyone who had ever worked at Twitter. “I don’t expect that to be mutual in this moment… or ever… and I understand,” he wrote. Dorsey posted the apology after published a story earlier in the day claiming he is now “hated at Twitter.” Many employees reportedly “blame” him for Musk’s takeover and the company-wide layoffs that will see about 50 percent of Twitter’s workforce cut.
The thread marks Dorsey’s first public comment on Twitter since Musk closed his $44 billion deal to buy the company on October 27th. When the SpaceX founder first announced the takeover, Dorsey put his support behind it. “Elon is the singular solution I trust,” . “This is the right path… I believe it with all my heart.” Dorsey was quiet after Musk attempted to , but in texts that , it became clear that he had wanted Musk to take a more active role at Twitter for some time.
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. All prices are correct at the time of publishing.
Aug 12 (Reuters) – Peloton Interactive Inc (PTON.O) said on Friday it would cut jobs, shut stores and raise prices on its exercise equipment including treadmills and top-end bikes as it undertakes a company-wide revamp to shore up its revenue and improve cash flow.
Shares of the company surged about 11% in afternoon trade after the company said in a memo it would cut about 800 jobs and reduce its retail presence in North America.
Under Chief Executive Officer Barry McCarthy, Peloton has implemented a slew of measures including cost cuts to steady its business as a pandemic-driven demand for its treadmills and exercise bikes quickly fizzles.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
On Friday, the company outlined a plan to aggressively reduce its retail presence in the United States and eliminate a number of jobs in warehouses and customer support teams.
Shifting final mile delivery to third-party logistics providers will reduce per-product delivery costs by up to 50%, McCarthy said in the memo seen by Reuters.
The company is also raising prices of its Bike+ and Tread machines in five markets, including the United States and Canada. (https://bit.ly/3peZhNv)
The company, which lowered the prices for its products earlier this year, said it would now raise prices by $500 to $2,495 on Bike+ and by $800 to $3,495 on Tread in the United States.
McCarthy, a former Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) executive, said he was aiming to boost Peloton’s software engineering team, terming it as “right investments” to drive growth.
($1 = 1.2782 Canadian dollars)
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Reporting by Nathan Gomes and Kannaki Deka in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Deborah Sophia; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Anil D’Silva
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Barron’s deputy editor Alex Eule weighs in on Elon Musk buying Twitter.
Twitter Chief Executive Parag Agrawal sought to quell employee anger on Friday during a company-wide meeting where employees demanded answers to how managers planned to handle an anticipated mass exodus prompted by Elon Musk.
The meeting comes after Musk, the Tesla chief executive who sealed a $44 billion deal to buy the social media company, repeatedly criticized Twitter’s content moderation practices and a top executive responsible for setting speech and safety policies.
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
At the internal town hall meeting, which was heard by Reuters, executives said the company would monitor staff attrition daily, but it was too soon to tell how the buyout deal with Musk would affect staff retention.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal (Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images | twitter / Getty Images)
Musk has pitched lenders on slashing board and executive salaries but exact cost cuts remain unclear, according to sources familiar with the matter. One source said Musk would not make decisions on job cuts until he assumes ownership of Twitter.
“I’m tired of hearing about shareholder value and fiduciary duty. What are your honest thoughts about the very high likelihood that many employees will not have jobs after the deal closes?” one Twitter employee asked Agrawal, in a question read aloud during the meeting.
TEXAS LAWMAKER SAYS STATE WILL ‘ROLL OUT THE RED CARPET’ IF ELON MUSK MOVES TWITTER TO LONE STAR STATE
Agrawal answered that Twitter has always cared about its employees and would continue to do so.
“I believe the future Twitter organization will continue to care about its impact on the world and its customers,” he said.
Executives said during the meeting that the employee attrition rate has not changed compared to the levels before the news of Musk’s interest in buying the company.
In recent days, Musk has tweeted criticism of Twitter’s top lawyer, Vijaya Gadde, who is a Twitter veteran and widely-respected across Silicon Valley. Musk’s attack triggered a barrage of online harassment targeting her.
Employees also told executives they feared Musk’s erratic behavior could destabilize Twitter’s business, and hurt it financially as the company prepares to address the advertising world in a presentation next week in New York City.
A sign is pictured outside the Twitter headquarters in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn / AP Newsroom)
“Do we have a strategy in the near-term on how to handle advertisers pulling investment,” one employee asked.
Sarah Personette, Twitter’s chief customer officer, said the company was working to communicate frequently with advertisers and reassure them “the way that we service our customers is not changing.”
After the meeting, a Twitter employee told Reuters there was little trust in what executives had to say.
TWITTER SCRAPS EARNINGS FORECAST, CITES ELON MUSK’S ACQUISITION STATUS
“The PR speak is not landing. They told us don’t leak and do a job you are proud of, but there is no clear incentive for employees to do this,” the employee told Reuters, noting that compensation for non-executive staffers is now capped because of the deal.
Agrawal is estimated to receive $42 million if he were terminated within 12 months of a change in control at the social media company, according to research firm Equilar.
Ticker
Security
Last
Change
Change %
TWTR
TWITTER INC.
49.01
-0.14
-0.28%
TSLA
TESLA INC.
870.76
-6.75
-0.77%
During the meeting, Agrawal urged staff to expect change in the future under new leadership, and acknowledged that the company could have performed better over the years.
“Yes, we could have done things differently and better. I could have done things differently. I think about that a lot,” he said.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS
Twitter declined further comment.
(Reporting by Sheila Dang in Dallas and Katie Paul in Palo Alto, California; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Kenneth Li and Daniel Wallis)
Elon Musk’s Twitter profile is seen on a smartphone placed on printed Twitter logos in this picture illustration taken April 28, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
April 29 (Reuters) – Twitter (TWTR.N) Chief Executive Parag Agrawal sought to quell employee anger on Friday during a company-wide meeting where employees demanded answers to how managers planned to handle an anticipated mass exodus prompted by Elon Musk.
The meeting comes after Musk, the Tesla (TSLA.O) chief executive who sealed a $44 billion deal to buy the social media company, repeatedly criticized Twitter’s content moderation practices and a top executive responsible for setting speech and safety policies.
At the internal town hall meeting, which was heard by Reuters, executives said the company would monitor staff attrition daily, but it was too soon to tell how the buyout deal with Musk would affect staff retention.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Musk has pitched lenders on slashing board and executive salaries but exact cost cuts remain unclear, according to sources familiar with the matter. One source said Musk would not make decisions on job cuts until he assumes ownership of Twitter. read more
“I’m tired of hearing about shareholder value and fiduciary duty. What are your honest thoughts about the very high likelihood that many employees will not have jobs after the deal closes?” one Twitter employee asked Agrawal, in a question read aloud during the meeting.
Agrawal answered that Twitter has always cared about its employees and would continue to do so.
“I believe the future Twitter organization will continue to care about its impact on the world and its customers,” he said.
Executives said during the meeting that the employee attrition rate has not changed compared to the levels before the news of Musk’s interest in buying the company.
In recent days, Musk has tweeted criticism of Twitter’s top lawyer, Vijaya Gadde, who is a Twitter veteran and widely-respected across Silicon Valley. Musk’s attack triggered a barrage of online harassment targeting her. read more
Employees also told executives they feared Musk’s erratic behavior could destabilize Twitter’s business, and hurt it financially as the company prepares to address the advertising world in a presentation next week in New York City.
“Do we have a strategy in the near-term on how to handle advertisers pulling investment,” one employee asked.
Sarah Personette, Twitter’s chief customer officer, said the company was working to communicate frequently with advertisers and reassure them “the way that we service our customers is not changing.”
After the meeting, a Twitter employee told Reuters there was little trust in what executives had to say.
“The PR speak is not landing. They told us don’t leak and do a job you are proud of, but there is no clear incentive for employees to do this,” the employee told Reuters, noting that compensation for non-executive staffers is now capped because of the deal.
Agrawal is estimated to receive $42 million if he were terminated within 12 months of a change in control at the social media company, according to research firm Equilar.
During the meeting, Agrawal urged staff to expect change in the future under new leadership, and acknowledged that the company could have performed better over the years. read more
“Yes, we could have done things differently and better. I could have done things differently. I think about that a lot,” he said.
Twitter declined further comment.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Reporting by Sheila Dang in Dallas and Katie Paul in Palo Alto, California; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Kenneth Li and Daniel Wallis
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Compared to the last design language revamp, Google’s rollout of Material You is happening at a much faster pace. That Material You app update blitz comes amid a barrage of Pixel 6 advertising and that’s no coincidence. It’s the sign of a well-under-way vision at Google that has been sorely missing.
Material You was officially announced at I/O 2021 in May as Google’s hyper-personalized approach to designing apps and other UIs that adapt to users. The goal is to give people — billed as “co-creators” — “more expressiveness and control over their personal devices.”
The primary aspect of Material You is wallpaper-based theming. Pixel phones look at your background and create a palette to color the system interface (notifications shade, settings, etc.) and applications. This results in a giant hued clock on your lockscreen, while Gmail and Messages – places where most users spend a great deal of time – no longer feel generic.
Giving everything a uniform color that isn’t stark white or gray is delightful in a way I did not foresee. I initially found the splash of colors refreshing, but that’s since evolved into a deeper appreciation. Switching from Gmail on my Pixel to gmail.com on a laptop now feels quite stark. The latter feels rather generic and the (exact same) information does not feel personalized to me in any way. It’s an odd feeling, but I’m growing more and more fond of the consistently applied hues.
The other physical change made by Material You is to various button shapes and sizes. This feels almost perfunctory with any design language revamp, but the modernization is appreciated. One of the more notable changes here is a taller bottom bar, with larger touch targets seemingly the goal. The focus on tappability has resulted in a curious widget that’s shaped like a flower, which appears to be how Google officially refers to that design.
It’s bulbous and vaguely organic in a way that might grow on some people, but far from guaranteed. That might be a sign that Google will let you choose shapes in the future for widgets. It would make sense for a Google Photos widget, but Android 12 did just remove app icon customization with seemingly no immediate plans to bring it back.
All these nice aspects of Material You are easy to pick up on because Google has very quickly rolled out redesigned apps. It of course started in Android 12 with a new lockscreen, notification shade, and quick settings. Google Camera, Gboard, and Files, all system-adjacent apps, followed.
The first big redesign was Google Contacts in mid-August with the Pixel Launcher’s Discover feed and Lens following. Android 12 Beta 5 at the start of last month saw Google Clock and Calculator. Then came the big announcement of several Google Workspace apps.
Gmail’s Material You redesign started rolling out on September 2 and was widely available two weeks later. In contrast, the previous Google Material Theme was announced in May 2018 and Gmail was first previewed with that design two months later. It started rolling out in January 2019 before becoming fully available in mid-February. Similarly, Google took forever to introduce dark themes across all of its apps with Google One skipping the night-friendly look entirely until Material You.
This quick turnaround is even more impressive when you consider how modern Gmail is three applications in one. Meanwhile, other completed revamps for big apps include Calendar, Docs/Sheets/Slides, and Keep.
One reason the redesigns are moving so quickly is because Google wants to make sure its first-party apps match Android 12 before launch. The Pixel 6 is the other big factor.
More than any other past Nexus or Pixel device, software and design is a very big selling point of this year’s flagship. The Pixel has always had custom software experiences like Google Camera, Recorder, and Personal Safety, but those are more or less created by the same division.
What’s different is how the Pixel 6 is seeing tremendous buy-in from all parts of the company. Android does that every year with the OS, but it’s now the Material Design team in a very major way. Having a personalized color palette, which first required a whole new design system years in the making, is literally a selling point of the phone. With Material You making an appearance in Pixel 6 ads, this is the most public outing for a Google design language.
Meanwhile, the Workspace group is making sure Gmail and other productivity apps are ready in time, while more consumer apps like Photos, Phone, and Messages are ready — if not waiting for — the Pixel 6 to launch. In turn, the phones very clearly takes color (coral and green/fog especially) inspiration from prominent Material You themes.
What’s remarkable about this moment is how in-sync Google software, as led by Material Design, is with Pixel hardware. This tight integration is only set to flourish. After Pixel and the phone form factor, Google explicitly said to expect Material You on the web, Chrome OS, wearables, and Smart Displays.
Save for the web, those three silos represent hardware that Made by Google has a deep investment in. Smart Displays help push Google’s vision of Ambient Computing — which needs expert design (both UI and UX) to feel seamless and succeed — and wearables are seeing new life with Wear OS 3, while there are rumors of a Tensor-powered Pixelbook in the future.
If those marquee hardware launches look anything like this Material You software update lead-up to the Pixel 6, Google will be creating products that offer a complete end-to-end vision that’s not shoehorned. It’s something the company hasn’t naturally offered up in a while.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
