January 13, 2023

Parlement Technologies, the parent company of the Parler social media app, appears to have laid off the majority of its employees.

According to TheVerge, Parlement Technologies began laying off employees in late November, according to a report from TheVerge. These layoffs continued until at least the end of December, when approximately 75 percent of employees were let go, leaving approximately 20 employees working at both Parler and the parent company’s cloud services venture.

Kanye West, also known as Ye, was on the verge of acquiring Parler. “Parlement Technologies has confirmed that the company has mutually agreed with Ye to terminate the intent of sale of Parler,” the company later stated. Mid-November, this decision was made in the best interests of both parties.”

TheVerge reports that the layoffs began about two weeks after Parlement Technologies terminated a deal to sell Parler to Ye (formerly Kanye West). On October 17, Ye and Parlement announced the acquisition agreement, with Ye stating that he would protect “conservative opinions” on the site. Ye made the deal with Parler after his anti-Semitic tweets were blocked on Twitter and Instagram.

The agreement was terminated after Ye praised Nazis and said, “I like Hitler,” during an appearance on Alex Jones’ Infowars show. Ye’s Hitler comments were made on December 1, but Parlement issued a statement saying the “mutual” decision to end the deal “was made in mid-November in the interest of both parties.”

The majority of the company’s executives, including its chief technology, operations, and marketing officers, have been laid off. When The Verge reached out to a known contact for the company for comment, they told The Verge that they no longer worked with Parler or Parler Technologies.

The sources for this piece include an article in ArsTechnica.