According to a report by The Washington Post, Elon Musk informed prospective investors in his bid to purchase Twitter that he intended to lay off approximately 75% of the social media company’s 7,500 employees. According to the report, employment layoffs are inevitable in the coming months regardless of who runs the firm.
A deadline of October 28th has been set by Elon Musk to complete the purchase of Twitter. Twitter halted its employees’ equity rewards as an indication that the deal is moving through. Layoffs were already scheduled in the company as prior to Musk’s proposal, Twitter management intended to lay off about a quarter of its workers, saving $800 million in salary.
The Washington Post reports that although human resources managers at the social media behemoth told staff members that no mass layoffs were anticipated, documents showed that before Musk made an acquisition bid, significant measures to reduce infrastructure costs and force out staff had already been planned.
Elon Musk has stated that he and his investors are unquestionably overpaying for Twitter, but he has also expressed delight at the purchase of the social media behemoth. He described Twitter as a “languished” asset for a long period. “Myself and the other investors are obviously overpaying for Twitter right now. The long-term potential for Twitter in my view is an order of magnitude greater than its current value,” Musk stated.
Musk attempted to back out of the purchase of Twitter in May, claiming that the firm undervalued the number of bot and spam accounts on the social media network, sparking a series of litigation between the two sides. However, Musk switched stance earlier this month and stated that he will proceed with the acquisition on the original conditions.
BBC noted that a spokesperson for Twitter confirmed that the company received the proposal with the intention to close the transaction at $54.20 per share. The u-turn by Musk showed a positive sign for the Twitter shares’ price which has plunged drastically since Musk announced he was planning to step back from the deal.
Elon Musk’s plan to buy Twitter
In April 2022, Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter at $44 billion and said he would like to take the company private. The deal was approved by the board of directors at Twitter. However, later Musk said that Twitter was allegedly holding back information about the spam accounts on the platform. Twitter, on the other hand, denied the allegations.
Musk announced that he was stepping back from the deal which led to a legal case filed by Twitter against him. Meanwhile, a whistleblower named Peiter ‘Mudge’ Zatko made shocking allegations against the social media platform and allegedly exposed the dark side of the company. He alleged that Twitter employees have access to the personal information of all the users, and Twitter was not updating its outdated servers and computers, leading to a potential leak of information.
Notably, after a case was filed against Musk, he had said on a social media platform that via to court case, he would get the information about the spam accounts that Twitter was allegedly hiding all along.
