Elon Musk plans to fire 75 percent of Twitter employees

Update 2022/11/02 at 1:58pm ET: Musk has apparently changed his tune on this, telling Twitter employees he doesn’t have plans to cut 75 percent of staff. However, Musk still plans to make cuts, although it’s unclear just how many people could lose their jobs.

Elon Musk is back in the news (is he ever not in the news?) over reports that he plans to cut some 75 percent of Twitter’s staff following the acquisition.

According to a report from The Washington Post , Musk told prospective investors in his deal to buy Twitter about his plans to cut staff. Currently, there are 7,500 employees at Twitter — the cuts would bring that down to around 2,000.

Job cuts were always on the table for Musk, although the latest numbers are far, far great than before. In June, a pitch deck hinted Musk aimed to cut around 900 jobs at Twitter. Moreover, the Post noted that Twitter management already had plans to cut the company’s payroll by about $800 million USD (roughly $1.1 billion CAD) by the end of next year, suggesting cuts were coming regardless of the Musk acquisition.

Beyond employees, Twitter reportedly planned to cut its infrastructure, including data centres, which help keep the website functioning for the over 200 million daily active users.

Still, Musk’s cuts are much bigger, and Twitter’s former head of spam and health metrics described them as “unimaginable” to The Post. Twitter users would likely notice the change right away, and that they would be at increased risk of hacks and exposure to offensive content.

Moreover, The Verge reported that several big names in private equity passed on Musk’s deal. That includes T. Rowe Price, TPG, and Warburg Pincus. LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman also passed, as did Peter Thiel’s venture firm Founders Fund. (Both Hoffman and Thiel worked at PayPal, as did Musk.

Musk told investors he plans to double Twitter’s revenue in three years but didn’t explain how that would happen. I’d also like to know how Musk plans to do this after gutting Twitter’s staff and risking disruptions to the service.

The Twitter deal is expected to close on October 28th, and sources familiar with it told The Post that it’s moving forward in good faith after months of fighting.