According to people who know the matter, Elon Musk plans to cut about 3,700 jobs at Twitter Inc., or half of the social media company’s workforce, to cut costs following its $44 billion acquisition.
Twitter’s new owner aims to notify affected staff members on Friday, said the people, who requested anonymity, discussing non-public plans. Musk also intends to reverse the company’s current work-from-anywhere policy, asking remaining employees to report to offices, although some exceptions can be made, the people said.
Musk and a team of advisers have been weighing a range of scenarios for job cuts and other policy changes at San Francisco-based Twitter, the people said, adding that the terms of the headcount reduction could still change. In one scenario being considered, laid-off workers will be offered 60 days’ worth of severance pay, two of the people said.
Musk is under pressure to find ways to slash the costs of a business he says he overpaid. The billionaire agreed to pay $54.20 a share in April just as markets tumbled. He then tried for months to get out of the transaction, alleging that the company misled him about the prevalence of fake accounts. Twitter sued to force Musk to make good on his agreement, and in recent weeks, Musk caved, resigning himself to closing the deal at the agreed-upon terms. The take-private deal closed Thursday.
Twitter employees have been bracing for layoffs since Musk took over and immediately ousted much of the top executive team, including Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal, finance chief Ned Segal and senior legal staffers Vijaya Gadde and Sean Edgett. In the following days, other departures included Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Berland, Chief Customer Officer Sarah Personette, and Jean-Philippe Maheu, vice president of global client solutions.
Musk anointed himself “Chief Twit” in his bio on the social network. Bloomberg reported earlier that he would take on the role of interim CEO himself. He also dissolved the company’s board and became sole director, saying later that it was “just temporary
Over the weekend, a few employees with director and vice president jobs were cut, people familiar with the matter said. The people said that other leaders were asked to make lists of employees on their teams who could be cut.
Senior personnel on the product teams were asked to target a 50% reduction in headcount, a person familiar with the matter said this week. Engineers and director-level staff from Tesla Inc., the carmaker also run by Musk, reviewed the lists, the person said. The people said that layoff lists were drawn up and ranked based on individuals’ contributions to Twitter’s code during their time at the company. Both Tesla personnel and Twitter managers made the assessment.
Concerns over steep personnel cuts started to swirl in the run-up to Musk’s buyout when potential investors were told that he’d eliminate 75% of the workforce, which stood at about 7,500 at the end of 2021. Musk later denied that the cuts would be that deep