Elon Musk continues to make changes to Twitter including—firing employees and finding a new CEO.
Key Details
- Twitter owner Elon Musk’s latest move is a search for a new CEO. He says that his time as CEO is temporary until he can find a suitable replacement for the role.
- Another change he is looking to make is firing any employee who does not align with his vision for Twitter.
- He gave employees an ultimatum to work hard or leave.
Why it’s news
In the month since Elon Musk officially acquired Twitter he has made quick and dramatic changes.
The most recent of the changes comes as a bit of a surprise—Musk says he does not want to be CEO of Twitter.
Musk recently stated that he does not want to be CEO of Twitter or any company. He is currently at the helm of multiple companies and states that it is only temporary as he scouts out possible people to replace him.
“I expect to reduce my time at Twitter and find somebody else to run Twitter over time,” he says.
He explains that he is much more than just CEO for all of his companies and that the term CEO is more business-focused whereas he works more as an engineer within the companies.
“It’s my experience that great engineers will only work for a great engineer. That is my first duty, not that of CEO,” he says.
Musk is also looking to let go of more employees unless they are willing to work long hours. He recently sent out a company wide email stating that employees could choose to either work “long hours at high intensity” or take “three months of severance.”
Musk has already laid off a large portion of Twitter employees and is prepared to fire anyone who is not willing to work long hours to support his vision of Twitter 2.0.
Backing up a bit
Musk has made a large variety of changes to Twitter in the short amount of time that he has owned the company.
After the Twitter deal was finalized Musk began to immediately make his mark on the company by sending Tesla engineers to meet with Twitter product leaders to ensure everything was in place for his takeover.
He then fired Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde. He also fired the entirety of the Twitter board and was named sole director of the company.
His next step—cutting 50% of Twitter’s remaining employees.
Not long after that he decided to start charging for a verified blue check mark on the app which stirred up a bot of controversy. The check mark was previously reserved for celebrities and other verified individuals, but now anyone willing to pay could receive one.
That plan backfired as many people impersonated celebrities and other famous figures resulting in Musk having to pause the program with hopes to restart on November 29.
These are all changes that have been made in the month since Musk’s acquisition and it is fair to say that many more will be coming in the future.
