It’s Friday, so which means it’s time for the most recent episode of ‘What’s Occurring within the Elon Musk/Twitter takeover?’
And in case you’re a Twitter worker, this week’s information shouldn’t be nice.
As per The Washington Submit:
“Musk advised potential buyers in his deal to purchase the corporate that he deliberate to eliminate practically 75 p.c of Twitter’s 7,500 staff, whittling the corporate all the way down to a skeleton employees of simply over 2,000.”
Musk’s deliberate employees cuts have been well-documented – again in Might, as a part of a leaked overview that Musk had despatched to potential buyers, it was reported that Musk was seeking to reduce round 1,000 employees on day one, earlier than ultimately including again over 2,700 workers by 2025, in step with platform progress.
No person is aware of how, precisely, Musk plans to stimulate that progress, and I’m not satisfied Elon does both, however his perspective, at current, appears to be that Twitter is bloated, pricey and underachieving.
Musk really summarized such himself, when he was questioned concerning the Twitter deal in Tesla’s third quarter earnings name earlier within the week:
“I feel it’s [a massive asset] that’s type of languished for a very long time, however has an unimaginable potential.”
Musk additionally famous that he and his fellow buyers are ‘clearly overpaying’ for the app. Besides, he’s excited for what comes subsequent:
“The long-term potential for Twitter, for my part, is an order of magnitude better than its present worth.”
That positive feels like somebody who’s able to pay up and take over on the app – although the deal is nonetheless not technically finalized on the time of writing.
Both manner, vital issues nonetheless linger round Musk’s grand Twitter plan – particularly when he’s tweeting out memes like this:
Musk later deleted the tweet – and naturally, as numerous individuals who’ve handled Musk have famous, his Twitter persona and precise real-life strategy are very totally different. However nonetheless.
He additionally posted, then deleted, this:
Kanye – or ‘Ye’ as he now prefers – moved to purchase free speech social community Parler this week, and the truth that Elon’s even joking about merging these apps appears to not be a terrific signal for Twitter’s future, particularly if he’s going to, you already know, eliminate all of the employees that may theoretically maintain the moderation issues which can be prone to emerge on account of any associated shift in strategy.
Actually, it’s not doable to separate reality from fiction within the Elon Musk/Twitter stakes, as a result of we’ve got no manner of understanding what Musk’s plans are for the app, exterior of the obscure notes and pointers that he’s provided alongside the way in which.
Although once more, this appears prone to be essentially the most vital level of competition, and does seem to align with Musk’s precise strategy.
By “free speech”, I merely imply that which matches the regulation.
I’m in opposition to censorship that goes far past the regulation.
If folks need much less free speech, they may ask authorities to cross legal guidelines to that impact.
Due to this fact, going past the regulation is opposite to the need of the folks.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 26, 2022
We’ll have to attend and see, however reducing 75% of employees, whereas concurrently opening up the ‘free speech’ gates? That might see issues get very messy, very quick within the Twitter-sphere.
On one other entrance, Musk has reassured ‘3-time bee sting survivor’ Dave Portnoy that he does certainly intend to sort out the platform’s bot points.
He additionally shared this random thought, apropos of nothing:
I can’t allow you to down, it doesn’t matter what it takes
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 19, 2022
That’s not a part of an extended thread, or a reply that I’ve chosen to not embed. It was only a single tweet, a notice to the world, possibly.
So, what comes subsequent for Twitter?
Properly, it looks as if employees cuts are inevitable, and the impacts of that shall be unattainable to foretell – although I don’t suppose that Musk is aware of for positive what the precise variety of cuts he’s going to make shall be as but.
Possibly the suggestion of 75% cuts is a way to offer those that are already contemplating leaving the corporate a little bit push, as a way to keep away from future payouts – or possibly Elon is certainly going to go department-by-department on the primary day, laying folks off as he goes.
And I feel that is it for the Musk/Twitter replace this week. Oh, additionally, Musk’s Twitter buy could possibly be below Nationwide Safety evaluate, which might nonetheless derail the entire thing. Yeah, that too.
The chaos rolls on.
