The social networking site now only has 1,500 employees, down from under 8,000 at the time of his acquisition, according to Musk, who was quoted in the interview. The layoffs represent over 80% of the company’s workforce.
At Twitter‘s headquarters in San Francisco, the billionaire CEO told the British broadcaster that it’s “not fun at all” and occasionally “painful.”
Reduction of Twitter’s Employees
When he joined the company, the second-richest man in the world claimed that “drastic action” was required since there was “a $3 billion negative cash flow situation.” He calculated that Twitter (TWTR) had just “four months to live” as a result.
This situation is neither compassionate nor uncaring. As if nobody has a job if the entire ship sinks, Musk said. Last October, Musk paid $44 billion to acquire Twitter.
- Last October, Musk paid $44 billion to acquire Twitter
- Twitter is “roughly” breaking even and advertisers are returning to the service.
- Musk also promised to change the description of the British broadcaster to publicly funded.
He made the initial bid to purchase the business in April 2022 but then tried to back out due to reservations about the number of bot accounts it had. Since then, he has completely redesigned Twitter, laying off key executives, laying off employees, and implementing new rules for how user accounts are verified or tagged.
Since then, he claimed to the BBC, Twitter has “roughly” broken even, and advertisers have started using the service once more. After the BBC objected, Musk also promised to change the description of the British broadcaster from “government-funded” to “publicly funded.”
On Saturday, the designation was added. With the claim that it “is, and always has been, independent,” the BBC had objected to the action. At the time, it stated, “We are sponsored by the British public through the license fee.
Musk weighed in on the US probe into TikTok, saying that although he didn’t use the Chinese-owned app, he was usually “against banning things.” I guess it would assist Twitter because people would spend more time on Twitter and less time on TikTok, he reasoned if TikTok were outlawed.
Although it might be advantageous for Twitter, the speaker continued, “I would normally oppose banning anything. Musk also cracked jokes during the conversation, saying that his Shiba Inu puppy, Floki, had replaced him as Twitter’s CEO.
