The FT have been rummaging through the LinkedIn profiles of Twitter employees and have discovered that they are abandoning the social media company in droves. Their analysis found that around 450 of Twitter’s 3,900 staff have left in the company in the past year. Competition for top talent is fierce in Silicon Valley and Twitter employees are being snapped up by rival companies with better growth prospects.

Twitter’s share price has plummeted by 31% since April as the reality that a niche social media platform used by journalists and professional offence-takers is tricky to monetise begins to dawn on investors. Not good news for employees holding stock options…

Employees who have left Twitter in the last year include the chief operating officer, head of communications, head of corporate development, VP of media and most the senior staff from a mobile advertising exchange Twitter recently acquired for $350 million. Falling down the pecking order…