SAN FRANCISCO – According to The Washington Post, Elon Musk intends to lay off the majority of Twitter’s employees if and when he acquires the social media company.
According to this report, Musk has told prospective Twitter investors that he intends to lay off nearly 75% of the company’s 7,500 employees, thereby leaving the company with only a skeleton crew. Documents as well as anonymous sources familiar with the discussions were cited by the newspaper.
Messages to Twitter seeking comment were not immediately returned by Twitter or a representative for Musk attorney Alex Spiro.
While job cuts were anticipated irrespective of the sale, Musk’s proposed cuts are far more severe than anything Twitter had planned. Musk has stated the need to cut some staff previously but didn’t specify the number.
“Wedbush analyst Dan Ives believes the company’s growth and profitability will be appealing to investors seeking to get in on the action.” “However, you can’t just cut your path to success.”
According to Ives, such a dramatic drop in Twitter’s workforce would set the company back several years.
Already, experts, non-profits, and even Twitter employees have warned that reducing investments in content moderation as well as data security could harm Twitter and its users.
With such a drastic reduction, the platform could rapidly become swamped with inappropriate content and spam, the latter of which Musk has stated he will address when he becomes the company’s owner.
Musk backed down from his preliminary $44 billion bid for Twitter in April contending Twitter misrepresented the count of fake “spam bot” accounts on its platform. Twitter sued, and a Delaware judge has granted both parties up to Oct. 28 to work iron out details. Otherwise, a trial will commence in November.
