Laying off of twitter workforce starts one week after Musk takes over
Twitter staff locked out of work account as Musk's mass purge begins
Musk defends deep cuts to workforce
Washington: US billionaire Elon Musk will start laying off Twitter workers on Friday, a little over a week after taking over the social media company, to place it “on a healthy path,” Twitter said in a letter to its employees circulated by US media.
“In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global work force. We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward,” the letter, obtained and published on a social network by a Washington Post correspondent, read.
Twitter instructed employees to stay home on Friday, since all the company’s “offices will be temporarily closed and all badge access will be suspended” to allegedly maintain safety of staff amid the cuts.
However, the letter did not specify the total number of employees to be laid off.
Musk closed a $44 billion deal to purchase Twitter last Friday after months of negotiations and legal disputes with the company about the number of fake accounts on the social media platform, which the entrepreneur believed was much higher than the company reported.
After completing the acquisition of the social media network, Musk fired Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde. The US billionaire also said that a special council “with widely diverse viewpoints” would be set up to moderate the platform.
On Monday, The Washington Post reported that Musk planned to lay off 25% of the Twitter workforce in an initial round of cuts after the takeover. Prior to this, the media outlet reported, citing corporate documents, that the entrepreneur intended to fire 75% of Twitter employees, but Musk denied the reports.
Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk has defended sacking about half the company’s workforce, saying he had “no choice” as Twitter was losing more than $4 million a day. (UNI/SPUTNIK)