Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal fired two top executives including general manager Kayvon Beykpour, and revenue and product lead, Bruce Falck. The move comes amid Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover, and the purportedly “different direction” the social media company is headed in. 

Beykpour, who was on paternity leave tweeted about his exit saying “I’m leaving the company after over 7 years.” 

In a statement, Twitter said they were cutting down on non-labour costs to be “responsible and efficient“. 

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Beykpour continued “The truth is that this isn’t how and when I imagined leaving Twitter, and this wasn’t my decision. Parag asked me to leave after letting me know that he wants to take the team in a different direction.” 

Expressing his disappointment, the head of consumer product said “I take solace in a few things: I am INSANELY proud of what our collective team achieved over the last few years, and my own contribution to this journey.” 

Beykpour also shared some details about Twitter’s trajectory during his time at the company. “Twitter’s DAU has grown by over 87% since Q2 2018 and our team has shipped bold and exciting new evolutions to the product (like Spaces, Communities, Topics, Creator tools, Safety controls) at a much much faster pace than anytime over the last decade” he said, adding, “I’m proud that we changed the perception around Twitter’s pace of innovation, and proud that we shifted the culture internally to make bigger bets, move faster, and eliminate sacred cows.” 

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Before his exit, the exec thanked his colleagues and wished the best for the social media company which is about to be taken private as per Musk’s deal. 

Beykpour noted “I hope and expect that Twitter’s best days are still ahead of it. Twitter is one of the most important, unique and impactful products in the world. With the right nurturing and stewardship, that impact will only grow.” 

He handed over the reins to Jay Sullivan, saying “I’m grateful the universe brought us together and that you took the leap to join the team and take on new responsibilities quickly. I know Bluebird is in great hands under your leadership.”

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The Periscope co-founder also thanked Dick Costolo for bringing him onto Twitter in 2015 and the social media company’s co-founder Jack Dorsey for trusting him since. 

Beykpour signed off sharing news of what’s next for him. Noting he was still on paternity leave, the recently freed exec said this is his first break since co-founding Periscope and he’s looking forward to sinking his teeth into something new, eventually.