Elon Musk plans to lay off almost 75% of Twitter’s 7,500 employees if he manages to buy the social network, according to information published Thursday by the Washington Post. The head of Tesla and SpaceX has indicated to potential investors that he intends to reduce the company to about 2,000 employees, according to the American newspaper.
The billionaire is a priori about to buy the social network for 44,000 million dollars, after months of economic and legal progress.
But even if Elon Musk fails to acquire Twitter, the platform plans to lay off almost a quarter of the staff anyway by the end of 2023, the sources say. Washington Post.
The capricious leader had made an acquisition offer accepted by the group’s board of directors at the end of April, stating then that his priority was not profitability but the defense of freedom of expression.
Musk wants less strict moderation
He then tried to unilaterally withdraw from the deal, accusing the company of lying to him about its fight against automated accounts and spam.
Twitter filed a complaint in early July, and Elon Musk finally assured earlier this month that the transaction was indeed going to go through. The judge postponed the trial, which should have taken place this week, and gave the two sides until October 28 to reach a new agreement.
A few months ago, Elon Musk recalled the importance in his eyes of a less strict moderation of content, within the limits established by law. His design collides with that of many Twitter employees, associations and elected Democrats, who instead ask social networks to better fight hate speech, harassment and disinformation.
His speech had revealed to what extent the gap that separates his vision of the company from that of many Silicon Valley employees, conquered by telecommuting. Elon Musk has thus required Tesla employees to work at least 40 hours a week face to face, otherwise they would lose their jobs.
In front of the Twitter employees, he explained that he wanted to give his opinion on the strategic orientations and the improvement of the products. He did not specify whether he intended to lay off employees, but did mention taking performance into account.
Source: BFM TV
