Twitter, having failed to sell itself, is planning to fire about 8% of its workforce as the struggling social-media company prepares to go it alone for the time being.

Twitter may eliminate about 300 people, the same percentage it did last year when co-founder Jack Dorsey took over as chief executive officer, according to people familiar with the matter. Planning for the cuts is still fluid and the number could change, they added. The people asked not to be identified talking about private company plans.

An announcement about the job reductions may come before Twitter releases third-quarter earnings on Thursday, one of the people said. A Twitter representative declined to comment.

Twitter, which is unprofitable, is trying to control spending as sales growth slows. The company recently hired bankers to explore a sale, but the companies that had expressed interest in bidding -- Salesforce.com, The Walt Disney Co. and Alphabet -- later backed out from the process.

The job cuts suggest Twitter isn't in a position to beat analysts' estimates for results in the third quarter or its outlook for the fourth, Loop Capital analyst Blake Harper wrote in a note to clients. He rates the stock hold.

Twitter's losses and 40% fall in its share price the past 12 months have made it more difficult for the company to pay its engineers with stock. That has made it harder for Twitter to compete for talent with giant rivals like Alphabet's Google and Facebook. Reducing employee numbers would relieve some of this pressure.

-- Bloomberg News