Twitter laid off half of its 7,500-person workforce on Friday, as new owner Elon Musk began his major overhaul of the troubled company just a week after his blockbuster takeover.
According to an internal document obtained by AFP, “roughly half” of employees were affected and would be denied access to company computers and email immediately.
Workers around the world were shown the door, and many took to Twitter to express their outrage or disbelief, as well as to bid farewell to one of Silicon Valley’s most iconic companies.
“Woke up to the news that my time working at Twitter has come to an end. I am heartbroken. I am in denial,” said Michele Austin, Twitter’s director of public policy for the US and Canada.
Twitter closed its offices around the world ahead of the layoffs, instructing employees to stay at home and await word of their fate via email.
“It’s a pretty inhumane way to treat people. It seems like a mercenary effort, they’re trying to save money at all cost,” said one dismissed employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The cull is part of Musk’s effort to find ways to pay for the massive $44 billion deal, for which he took on billions of dollars in debt and sold $15.5 billion in Tesla stock.
According to company sources, Musk’s teams were imposing a frenetic pace on the remaining employees, bringing in Tesla developers to oversee the work of “Tweeps,” the in-house term for Twitter employees.
Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, is said to owe $1 billion in annual interest alone to pay for a deal he attempted to back out of almost immediately after signing it in April.
Musk has been scrambling to find new revenue streams for Twitter following his massive buyout, including an idea to charge users $8 per month for verified accounts.
The moves would help mitigate the risk of losing advertisers, Twitter’s main source of revenue, with many of the world’s top brands putting their ad buys on hold, fearful of Musk’s well-known disdain for content controls.
On Friday, the mercurial tycoon complained on Twitter about a “massive drop in revenue,” which he blamed on “activist groups” pressuring advertisers.
“We did everything we could to appease the activists. Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America,” he added.
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