As part of what is anticipated to be the first round of layoffs, Twitter, which was acquired by billionaire Elon Musk last week, plans to fire a quarter of its staff, according to a story in the Washington Post on Monday. It was cited by a source familiar with the situation. The negotiations about the job reduction were reportedly spearheaded by celebrity attorney Alex Spiro, a longtime Musk legal counsel.
Twitter had over 7,000 workers at the end of 2021
According to a regulatory filing, Twitter had over 7,000 workers at the end of 2021, with roughly 2,000 people making up a quarter of the total.
Musk refuted a New York Times allegation that he had fired Twitter workers before November 1 in order to avoid having to pay out stock grants on that day.
According to sources, Musk sacked Twitter Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, and Chief Legal Affairs and Policy Officer Vijaya Gadde on Thursday after a six-month, $44 billion buyout saga of the social media network was completed.
Background
Last week, Twitter intervened to salvage the day and made it clear to the workforce that there were no plans for corporate-wide layoffs. A person who saw the email claims Twitter General Counsel Sean Edgett informed staff members on Thursday that there were no layoffs planned.