Cloud communication firm Twilio sacks over 850 employees

SAN FRANCISCO: Cloud communications company Twilio has sacked 11 per cent of its employees -- more than 850 people from its 7,800-strong workforce globally.

The impacted employees in the US and other countries will get an email, letting them know their role has been impacted and outlining next steps.

"Twilions who are impacted will also be able to meet with a leader from their team," Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson said in a statement late on Wednesday.

"I'm not going to sugarcoat things. A layoff is the last thing we want to do, but I believe it's wise and necessary. I take responsibility for those decisions, as well as the difficult decision to do this layoff," Lawson added.

The company said that it applied a rigorous selection process to examine which roles were most tightly aligned to its priorities.

"Similarly, we looked at the size of the investments we've made and whether they are working for our company. We ultimately found that some investments no longer make sense and identified areas where we can be more efficient," said the CEO.

The company has curtailed its investment in areas of 'Go To Market' where customers can succeed without as much human intervention, as well as making targeted changes to be more efficient in areas of R&D.

"All impacted Twilions globally will receive at least 12 weeks of pay, plus one week for every year of service at Twilio. You'll also receive the full value of Twilio's next stock vest because the Twilions who are leaving us are shareholders too," said the CEO.

Last month, Twilio admitted data breach as hackers entered its internal systems after stealing employee credentials in an SMS phishing attack.

Twilio, which owns popular two-factor authentication (2FA) Authy, said it identified 125 customers who had their data accessed during a security breach.