Elon Musk’s plan to purchase Twitter would bring with it massive cuts to the social media company’s workforce, according to a report Thursday by The Washington Post.
According to an article in the Washington Post, Musk has said that as part of his deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion he would get rid of nearly 75% of the company’s 7,500 workers, cutting staff to just over 2,000.
The Post reported that Twitter was already planning to make significant cuts and trim payroll by about $800 million by the end of next year. But Musk’s plan to make the struggling company more profitable goes much further, according to the Post, citing new details and conversations over the last few months.
After months of legal battles spurred by his attempt to drop out of planned purchase, Musk — the CEO of Tesla and founder of SpaceX — decided to go ahead with his deal for Twitter. It’s now expected to close next week.
The Post said such large-scale layoffs would impact the experience for millions of users, with one data scientist saying that Twitter’s users would be at increased risk of hacks and exposure to offensive material such as child pornography.
According to a representative with the real estate firm JLL in Seattle, Twitter still has two floors of space at the Century Square building in Seattle, and it is not currently being marketed for sublease.
But during the COVID-19 pandemic, the company adopted a work-from-home forever policy. Musk might have something to say about that, too, the way he did to Tesla employees in June when he reportedly said, “If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned.”
The Post noted that some potential investors in Musk’s take-private deal, including Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, said no. Citing people familiar with the situation, the Post said Hoffman helped connect Musk with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella during the money-raising process.
Hi, I’m Oren, founder at BIGINTRO, a content strategy agency that helps B2B companies drive growth. We develop search, social, PR, and content marketing strategies tailored to business goals. I also have a dog named Milo.