By Leah Montebello
Elon Musk has told prospective investors that he plans to axe nearly 75 per cent of Twitter’s staff, as the billionaire continues to push forward with a takeover deal.
According to reports from the Washington Post, jobs were already on the social media firm’s radar — even if the Tesla chief isn’t successful with his $44bn offer.
It reported that whilst human resources staff have reassured employees that mass layoffs were not coming any time soon, documents showed that plans to axe certain infrastructure costs and staff costs were already in motion before Musk first made an offer to buy Twitter in April for $54.20 per share.
It is understood that Musk wants to push this further, cutting Twitter’s 7,500 employees down to a “skeleton staff” of around 2,000 people.
Twitter confirmed this afternoon that General Counsel Sean Edgett warned workers to expect “tons of public rumors and speculation” as the closing of the deal nears.
“We do not have any confirmation of the buyer’s plans following close and recommend not following rumors or leaked documents but rather wait for facts from us and the buyer directly,” he said.
Musk and Twitter have been embroiled in a legal battle after the entrepreneur said he wanted to back out of his plans to takeover the company because of concerns surrounding bots, and fake acccounts.
Musk later u-turned on this and told his 107m followers that the purchase would be an “accelerant” towards building an everything app, or super app.
Earlier this month, a Delaware judge granted Musk’s request to put his legal proceedings on hold until the end of this month to allow time for the billionaire’s proposed $44bn buyout to be completed.
Kathaleen McCormick, the judge overseeing the case, stipulated that if the transaction had not closed by 5pm on 28 October, a trial date would be set for November.
Twitter’s shares fell nearly five per cent this afternoon after following reports that US authorities were considering national security reviews into Musk’s deal.
Musk was not immediately available to comment on these reports.
The post Rumour mill: Musk takeover spells mass job cuts for Twitter staff appeared first on CityAM.
