Twitter has fired two top managers and paused hiring as part of an efficiency drive ahead of Elon Musk's planned $44bn (£36bn) takeover.

The social media platform confirmed the departures of general manager Kayvon Beykpour and head of revenue and product Bruce Falck and said it was now only planning to recruit for business critical roles.

It added: "We are pulling back on non-labour costs to ensure we are being responsible and efficient."

Both men confirmed they were given the push by Twitter's chief executive Parag Agrawal.

"Parag asked me to leave after letting me know that he wants to take the team in a different direction," Mr Beykpour tweeted, adding he was still on paternity leave from Twitter.

In a memo sent to employees and confirmed by Twitter, Mr Agrawal said the company had not hit growth and revenue milestones after the company began to invest "aggressively" to expand its user base and revenue.

Parag Agrawal is expected to be replaced -possibly by Elon Musk himself - if the takeover goes ahead .

"We need to continue to be intentional about our teams, hiring and costs," he wrote.

Mr Agrawal's own position is widely believed to be severely threatened in the event a Musk-led takeover completes.

Shares were 3% down on Thursday - taking them $10 below Elon Musk's offer price of $54 per share.

The billionaire, who is the world's richest man on paper, has been working furiously to secure additional funding for the planned deal since it was announced last month.

The aim is to reduce his reliance on Tesla stock to meet the agreed price.

High-profile investors said to be ready to provide funding of more than $7bn include Oracle's co-founder Larry Ellison while Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is understood to be keen to roll his existing Twitter investment into Mr Musk's purchase.

Mr Musk has repeatedly stated how he wants Twitter to become a platform for free speech, to reduce its reliance on advertising and deal with the proliferation of spam-distributing bots.