Elon Musk informed Twitter employees that he does not intend to fire 75% of the workforce after taking over the organization. According to reports, Musk informed potential investors that he would fire 75% of Twitter’s staff, leaving the company with only 2,000 employees.
Elon Musk, the tech magnate and incoming boss of Twitter, reportedly informed staff members on Wednesday that he does not intend to lay off 75% of the company’s workforce. Musk, whose $44 billion Twitter acquisition appears to be on pace to close by Friday, refuted the previously reported lay-off estimate in a speech to staff members at Twitter’s San Francisco office.
Twitter employees who may have been anxious following a story in The Washington Post last week suggesting that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO had planned to fire 75% of Twitter’s workforce once he acquired control of the company would likely be relieved by Musk’s comments.
However, Twitter Inc. warned staff to expect loads of public rumors and speculation as the acquisition by Musk approaches and stated that there haven’t been any plans for company-wide layoffs since it inked the deal.
Nevertheless, there has been a noticeable air of sadness in the Twitter offices since Musk revealed his intentions to purchase the microblogging platform. Many high-level executives have already left the company since the acquisition was first revealed in April, citing Musk’s actions and public statements as the reason for their resignation.
As per the Washington Post report, regardless of who operates the company, workforce layoffs are anticipated in the near future, The report states that Twitter’s present management intended to reduce the corporation’s payroll by around $800 million by the end of 2023, which would result in the departure of close to a quarter of the employees.
Layoffs are still anticipated after the Tesla CEO’s takeover even if he does not lay off the company’s staff by 75%, sources have told Bloomberg. It was also reported that despite assurances from Twitter’s human resources department that mass layoffs were not in the works, substantial measures to fire employees and reduce infrastructure expenses were in place even before Musk made an acquisition offer.
Elon Musk released a video earlier on Thursday showing him entering the offices while holding a kitchen sink with the caption “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!” He updated the description of his Twitter profile to “Chief Twit.” Musk recently posted to Twitter, “A beautiful thing about Twitter is how it empowers citizen journalism – people are able to disseminate news without an establishment bias.”
As per the Wall Street Journal, banks have begun transferring $13 billion in cash to support Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, indicating that the transaction will complete by the end of this week.
The cash will be made accessible for Musk to complete the purchase by the Friday time limit once all closing requirements have been satisfied.
After making an initial $44 billion offer to purchase Twitter, Musk withdrew his offer, claiming that Twitter had overstated the number of bogus “spam bot” accounts it had on its platform.
Twitter sued to hold Musk to the stipulations of the acquisition agreement, but a US court recently put a halt on the case after Musk changed his opinion, and gave the parties time till October 28 to complete the acquisition.
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