Periscope co-founder Kyvan Becpour is one of two Twitter executives to announce his departure on Thursday.
one in series of tweetsBekpour said that they have received a request to leave from Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal. Twitter Product Lead Bruce Falk, Farewell to the company in a Twitter thread on Thursday.
A Twitter spokesperson confirmed the departure of Baccour and Falk in a statement to HuffPost.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is working to finalize a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter, although the purchase is not complete.
Musk has spoken in recent weeks about his yearning for “free speech” on the site and overturned former President Donald Trump’s ban from the social media platform, pending his purchase.
Becpour, who has been with the company for more than seven years, said it was not his decision to leave Twitter, but that Agarwal had told him that “he wants to take the team in a different direction.”
Baccour helped start the video-sharing platform Periscope with Joe Bernstein in 2014. Twitter acquired the platform a year later. The company retired Periscope in 2021, partly due to declining usage.
The Periscope co-founder interrupted paternity leave to deliver the news to his more than 100,000 followers.
“What’s next for me: OK, I’m still on paternity leave,” Becpour tweeted. “Looking forward to my first break since co-founding @periscopeco with @joebernstein, and finally sinking my teeth into something new.”
On top of the departure, Twitter is stopping “most recruiting and backfill” except for “business critical” roles starting this week, a spokesperson told HuffPost.
“We are pulling back on nonessential labor costs to ensure that we are responsible and efficient,” the spokesperson said.
