SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk plans to put off most of Twitter’s workforce if and when he turns into proprietor of the social media firm, based on a report Thursday by The Washington Submit.
Musk has instructed potential traders in his Twitter buy that he plans to chop practically 75% of Twitter’s worker base of seven,500 employees, leaving the corporate with a skeleton crew, based on the report. The newspaper cited paperwork and unnamed sources aware of the deliberations.
San Francisco-based Twitter and a consultant for Musk lawyer Alex Spiro didn’t instantly reply to messages looking for remark.
Whereas job cuts have been anticipated whatever the sale, the magnitude of Musk’s deliberate cuts are much more excessive than something Twitter had deliberate. Musk himself has alluded to the necessity to cull among the firm’s employees previously, however he hadn’t given a selected quantity – a minimum of not publicly.
“A 75% headcount minimize would point out, a minimum of out of the gates, stronger free money stream and profitability, which might be engaging to traders seeking to get in on the deal,” mentioned Wedbush analyst Dan Ives. “That mentioned, you’ll be able to’t minimize your approach to progress.”
Ives added that such a drastic discount in Twitter’s workforce would possible set the corporate again years.
Already, specialists, nonprofits and even Twitter’s personal employees have warned that pulling again investments on content material moderation and information safety might damage Twitter and its customers. With as drastic a discount as Musk could also be planning, the platform might rapidly turn into overrun with dangerous content material and spam – the latter of which the Tesla CEO himself has mentioned he’ll handle if he turns into proprietor of the corporate.
After his preliminary $44 billion bid in April to purchase Twitter, Musk backed out of the deal, contending Twitter misrepresented the variety of faux “spam bot” accounts on its platform. Twitter sued, and a Delaware choose has given each side till Oct. 28 to work out particulars. In any other case, there can be a trial in November.
