Two Twitter Leaders Leaving in Latest Company Shake-Up

The departures come after Elon Musk struck a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion.

Queenie Wong Former Senior Writer

Queenie Wong was a senior writer for CNET News, focusing on social media companies including Facebook's parent company Meta, Twitter and TikTok. Before joining CNET, she worked for The Mercury News in San Jose and the Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon. A native of Southern California, she took her first journalism class in middle school.

Expertise I've been writing about social media since 2015 but have previously covered politics, crime and education. I also have a degree in studio art. Credentials

2022 Eddie award for consumer analysis

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Queenie Wong

May 13, 2022 12:33 p.m. PT

2 min read

Twitter is undergoing another leadership shake-up after Elon Musk struck a deal to buy the influential social network for $44 billion.

Kayvon Beykpour, who formerly led Twitter's consumer products before becoming general manager, said he was leaving the company after seven years because he was being pushed out by Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal. Beykpour, who's on paternity leave, tweeted about his departure on Thursday.

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

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.
— Kayvon Beykpour (@kayvz) May 12, 2022

Twitter spokesperson Brenden Lee confirmed the departure and said that Bruce Falck, Twitter's head of revenue, was also leaving the company. Jay Sullivan, who heads consumer products at Twitter, will become the general manager of Bluesky, Twitter's effort to develop a decentralized social network protocol, and its revenue team.

The leadership shake-up underscores the changes coming to Twitter after Musk's offer to buy the company, which still needs to be approved by shareholders. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey said in April that he doesn't think anyone should own or run the social media site and that it "wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company."

Twitter is also pausing most hiring and backfills, except for business critical roles, starting this week.

On Friday, Agrawal said that changes impacting people are "always hard," and he addressed the question of why he'd make these moves if he's expected to leave the company if the deal with Musk goes through.

"While I expect the deal to close, we need to be prepared for all scenarios and always do what's right for Twitter. I'm accountable for leading and operating Twitter, and our job is to build a stronger Twitter every day," Agrawal tweeted.

While I expect the deal to close, we need to be prepared for all scenarios and always do what’s right for Twitter. I’m accountable for leading and operating Twitter, and our job is to build a stronger Twitter every day.
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) May 13, 2022

Musk said Friday that the Twitter deal is "temporarily on hold" as he tries to get more details about the number of spam and fake accounts on the social network. Even though Musk said he was still "committed to the acquisition," his remarks have raised questions about whether he'll back out of the deal or try to get Twitter to lower the sale price. Terminating the deal would cost Musk $1 billion because of a fee that's part of the agreement, according an SEC filing on April 25. Twitter's stock is down 9%, to $40.76 per share.