It’s Friday, so which means it’s time for the most recent episode of ‘What’s Taking place within the Elon Musk/Twitter takeover?’
And in case you’re a Twitter worker, this week’s information just isn’t nice.
As per The Washington Put up:
“Musk advised potential traders in his deal to purchase the corporate that he deliberate to do away with practically 75 % of Twitter’s 7,500 staff, whittling the corporate right down to a skeleton employees of simply over 2,000.”
Musk’s deliberate employees cuts have been well-documented – again in Could, as a part of a leaked overview that Musk had despatched to potential traders, it was reported that Musk was seeking to reduce round 1,000 employees on day one, earlier than ultimately including again over 2,700 staff by 2025, in keeping 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 truly summarized such himself, when he was questioned in regards to the Twitter deal in Tesla’s third quarter earnings name earlier within the week:
“I believe it’s [a massive asset] that’s form of languished for a very long time, however has an unimaginable potential.”
Musk additionally famous that he and his fellow traders 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 larger than its present worth.”
That certain seems 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 means, important considerations 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 completely 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 an excellent signal for Twitter’s future, particularly if he’s going to, you realize, do away with all of the employees that may theoretically care for the moderation considerations which can be prone to emerge on account of any associated shift in strategy.
Actually, it’s not potential to separate truth from fiction within the Elon Musk/Twitter stakes, as a result of we’ve no means of figuring out 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 probably the most important level of competition, and does seem to align with Musk’s precise strategy.
By “free speech”, I merely imply that which matches the legislation.
I’m towards censorship that goes far past the legislation.
If individuals need much less free speech, they may ask authorities to go legal guidelines to that impact.
Due to this fact, going past the legislation is opposite to the desire of the individuals.
— 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 would 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 deal with the platform’s bot points.
He additionally shared this random thought, apropos of nothing:
I cannot 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 word to the world, possibly.
So, what comes subsequent for Twitter?
Effectively, it looks like employees cuts are inevitable, and the impacts of that can be not possible to foretell – although I don’t suppose that Musk is aware of for certain what the precise variety of cuts he’s going to make can be as but.
Perhaps the suggestion of 75% cuts is a way to provide those that are already contemplating leaving the corporate a little bit push, with the intention to keep away from future payouts – or possibly Elon is certainly going to go department-by-department on the primary day, laying individuals off as he goes.
And I believe that is it for the Musk/Twitter replace this week. Oh, additionally, Musk’s Twitter buy may very well be below Nationwide Safety evaluate, which might nonetheless derail the entire thing. Yeah, that too.
The chaos rolls on.
