Elon Musk lays off nearly 50% of Twitter employees according to internal document
Half of Twitter’s 7,500 employees were laid off this Friday, according to an internal document, as part of the restructuring undertaken by its new owner, billionaire Elon Musk.
“Nearly 50% of the workforce will be affected,” says an email accessed by AFP, which was sent to Twitter employees who lost their jobs after the company’s $44 billion purchase last week. .
It was an expected move, as Musk had sent an email warning that for the company to be on a “healthy path”, they would go through the “difficult process” of reducing their workforce. “We recognize that this will affect a number of people who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but unfortunately this action is necessary to ensure the future success of the company,” according to that statement.
The billionaire, who also runs electric carmaker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX, has also told investors he will take Twitter private, roll back its content moderation rules and seek new sources of revenue.
What will happen now with Twitter under the control of Elon Musk
But Musk has given conflicting statements about his vision for the company and has shared few concrete plans for how he will run it after acquiring it. Given this, Twitter users, advertisers and employees have no choice but to analyze each measure it takes in an attempt to figure out where it could take the company.
After Musk signed a deal to acquire Twitter in April, he tried to back out, prompting the company to sue him to force him to go through with the purchase. A Delaware judge had ordered that the deal had to be finalized no later than Friday, October 28.
Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, believes that Musk and his investors paid an inflated price. Even Musk has said the $44 billion price tag for Twitter was too high, but he says the company has great potential. The payment “will go down in history as one of the most overpaid technology acquisitions in M&A, in our opinion,” Ives wrote in a note to investors.
“At a fair value that we would put at around $25 billion, Musk’s purchase of Twitter remains a huge conundrum that he ultimately couldn’t get rid of once the Delaware courts got involved,” he considered.
