Twitter is pausing most hiring and two executives are leaving the company, a spokesperson confirmed on Thursday.

The news comes as billionaire Elon Musk seeks to complete his $44 billion deal to buy the company and take it private. Musk told banks in raising money for the deal he would cut executive and board pay and push the company to lower other costs, Reuters previously reported.

But, shares of Twitter are also trading more than $8 a share below Elon’s purchase price, indicating there may be some skepticism among investors that the deal will close.

Head of consumer Kayvon Beykpour and revenue product lead Bruce Falck are leaving the company, the spokesperson confirmed. Reuters earlier reported that CEO Parag Agrawal told employees the news in an email.

In a series of tweets on Thursday, Beykpour said it wasn’t his decision to leave Twitter. He shared the news of his departure while in the midst of paternity leave, he said.

“Parag asked me to leave after letting me know that he wants to take the team in a different direction,” he wrote.

Falck tweeted on Thursday his thanks to the teams he worked with at Twitter, but did not directly address the circumstances around his departure.

Twitter said it will pull back on non-labor costs and that Jay Sullivan would take over as general manager of Bluebird, the consumer team, and interim general manager of Goldbird, the revenue team.

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