'No one working to keep the lights on... making hard decisions as needed,' says Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal

Regardless of the company’s future ownership, we’re here improving Twitter as a product and business, Agrawal said

Amid senior executives leaving Twitter, CEO Parag Agrawal on Friday spoke out on the recent changes in the company even as billionaire Elon Musk's $44 billion takeover is being put on hold, saying that no one at the company is working "just to keep the lights on" and that he is committed to taking "hard decisions" going forward irrespective of whether the deal works out or not.

Two senior Twitter leaders who oversee the consumer and revenue divisions will depart the social media company, Parag had announced on Thursday, adding that the decision was made in part because Twitter was not able to hit user growth and revenue milestones to maintain confidence that it could reach aggressive growth targets it had set in 2020.

"A lot has happened over the past several weeks. I’ve been focused on the company and haven't said much publicly during this time, but I will now," Parag wrote in a Twitter thread.

"We announced changes to our leadership team and operations yesterday. Changes impacting people are always hard. And some have been asking why a “lame-duck” CEO would make these changes if we’re getting acquired anyway. The short answer is very simple: 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," he said.

"No one at Twitter is working just to keep the lights on. We take pride in our work. Regardless of the company’s future ownership, we’re here improving Twitter as a product and business for customers, partners, shareholders, and all of you," he added.

About questions on managing costs, Agrawal said the industry is in a "very challenging macro environment – right now". "I won’t use the deal as an excuse to avoid making important decisions for the health of the company, nor will any leader at Twitter," he explained.

He said that he's still focused on doing his job as CEO of the company, which includes "making hard decisions as needed". He said he will "continue to embrace" the deep complexities of the business and that people can expect "more changes for the better".

"I will also try to bring more transparency to the work that we do. You won’t see tweets from me on the ‘topic of the day’ or the loudest sound bite, but rather on the ongoing, continuous, and challenging work our teams are doing to improve the public conversation on Twitter," he said, closing by thanking the entire Twitter team for their work.

Agrawal had earlier announced that Twitter would pause most hiring and review all existing job offers to determine whether any "should be pulled back".