Elon Musk is continuing to make changes to Twitter, and the next big thing—job cuts.
Key Details
- After acquiring Twitter last week Elon Musk is making his mark on the company by sweeping it clean and starting fresh.
- He has fired everyone on the Twitter board and is eliminating other executives along the way.
- His next big step—cutting 50% of Twitter’s workforce and sending remaining employees back to the office.
Why it’s news
Last week Elon Musk officially closed on his $44-billion deal to buy Twitter. Since the deal was finalized he has been making big changes to the company.
He has fired the entire Twitter board and many top executives in the days following the acquisition and now he is laying off more workers—about 3,700.
It was alleged that he quickly fired top executives to avoid a big payout, but he denied those claims. He also dispelled rumors that he was firing 75% of employees and that he was firing staff prior to November 1 to avoid stock grants.
Musk said the cuts would not be to the extent of 75%, but it seems he will be landing around the 50% mark planning to cut about 3,700 employees from Twitter’s remaining staff.
Musk is set to inform workers who will be affected at the end of the work week and laid off workers will be receiving 60 days worth of severance pay, according to people with knowledge on the matter.
His reasoning behind the large firing spree is to cut down costs. Musk alleges that he paid too much for the company saying markets were much better when he made his original offer in April.
Not only is he planning to cut 50% of the staff, but he is planning to send remaining workers back to the office.
As of now Twitter employees are able to work from anywhere, but Musk is planning to send the remaining employees back to the office which might not go over too well.
Musk’s Changes So Far
Since acquiring Twitter Elon Musk has made many big changes to the company and is preparing for many more.
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.
Musk claims to be “chief twit” but not CEO of Twitter.
He is now proposing ways to bring in revenue for the company and planning to make verified accounts on the platform pay a monthly fee for their blue check mark.
Musk has much more plans for the company and will continue to make changes in the coming weeks.
