According to interviews and documents cited by The Washington Post on Thursday, billionaire Elon Musk told prospective investors in his effort to acquire Twitter Inc. that he planned to terminate nearly 75% of the social media company’s 7,500 employees.
Later, 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.
No matter who runs the business, job cuts are predicted in the coming months
No matter who runs the business, job cuts are predicted in the coming months. The insider claimed that by the end of the next year, Twitter’s existing management planned to cut the company’s payroll by almost $800 million, which would result in the departure of close to a quarter of the workforce.
Despite promises from the human resources department of the social media firm that mass layoffs were not planned, The Washington Post revealed that significant preparations to terminate employees and lower infrastructure costs were done even before Musk made an acquisition approach. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Musk made an attempt to back out of the deal to buy Twitter in May
Musk made an attempt to back out of the deal to buy Twitter in May, alleging the company had exaggerated the number of spam and bot accounts on the social media platform. The two sides engaged in a number of legal battles as a result of this.
Earlier this month, Musk had a change of heart and said he would uphold the terms of the original deal.
