Elon Musk: Billionaire says he had had ‘no choice’ over firings as Twitter losing $4m per day
‘This action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward,’ a memo to staff reportedly says
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Elon Musk said he had “no choice” but to fire around 3,700 Twitter employees worldwide as the company is losing $4m per day.
The billionaire took to Twitter to break his silence on the firings on Friday afternoon.
“Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day. Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required,” he tweeted.
Earlier in the day, thousands of employees at the company ost their jobs, with staff notified about the layoffs in an email on Thursday.
“Team, In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday,” the internal memo to the employees noted.
“We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward.”
Mr Musk has already made several changes to the company, starting with the firing of three of its top executives, including chief executive Parag Agrawal.
He had earlier told prospective investors that he intended to reduce the company’s staff from around 7,500 down to just over 2,000.
Bloomberg reported on Thursday that he planned to cut about 3,700 jobs at Twitter – about half the company’s workforce.
Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live blog on the latest with Twitter following Elon Musk’s takeover, including the news that potentially thousands of layoffs are to be announced today.
Employees received emails saying layoffs are starting today
Twitter staff reportedly received an unsigned email on Thursday announcing that layoffs are coming on Friday morning (today).
Employees will be notified either via their official company email accounts if they still have jobs, or via their personal email accounts if their “employment is affected,” according to NBCNews.
Everyone affected by the layoffs will receive an email by 9AM PST Friday, the internal memo reportedly said.
Twitter employees are calling Friday 'The Snap' and posting Thanos memes
Anticipating the layoff of over half of the company’s workforce on Friday, some Twitter employees are reportedly calling the day ‘The Snap,’ in reference to the Marvel villain’s extermination of half of all life in the universe.
Casey Newton, a former editor for The Verge, tweeted that dozens of Twitter’s employees are also posting possible farewell messages on Slack.
“We are grateful for your contributions to Twitter and your patience as we move through this process,” Twitter reportedly told its staff.
Twitter sued for mass layoffs without enough notice
Twitter was reportedly sued over new boss Elon Musk’s plan to eliminate thousands of jobs at the company.
A class-action lawsuit was filed on Thursday in San Francisco federal court, Bloomberg News reported.
The lawsuit reportedly cited the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act which restricts large companies from carrying out massive layoffs without at least 60 days of advance notice to employees.
Employees are quickly trying to unlink their Twitter accounts and work emails
Twitter staff are reportedly trying to quickly unlink their accounts on the platform from their work emails since the company mandates the two are connected.
Multiple reports suggest employees have started realising they have been laid off from the fact that their work logins are not working.
The company said in a memo earlier that it was laying off employees in “an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path.”
“It’s total chaos, house melting down, everyone looking towards this email,” one employee said, according to NBCNews.
Twitter may have lost over 1 million accounts since Musk takeover
Twitter may have lost more than a million accounts since new boss Elon Musk took over the company, a new report says.
Over 850,000 accounts were deactivated, and nearly 500,000 were suspended, according to an estimate by Bot Sentinel, a firm that tracks inauthentic behavior on Twitter.
“Based on our internal data, we estimate 877,000 Twitter accounts were deactivated, and a further 497,000 were suspended between October 27 and November 1. That’s more than double the usual number,” Christopher Bouzy, founder of Bot Sentinel, tweeted.
The estimate suggests there may have been a nearly 200 per cent increase in account losses on the microblogging platform since the multibillionaire closed the deal and bought the social media company.
Former Twitter employee Kayvon Beykpour offered his solidarity to leaving Twitter employees.
Mr Beykpour, who headed Periscope, Spaces, and Fleets during his seven-year tenure at the social media company, was fired by current chief executive Parag Agrawal while on paternity leave.
“The truth is that this isn’t how and when I imagined leaving Twitter, and this wasn’t my decision. Parag asked me to leave after letting me know that he wants to take the team in a different direction”, Mr Beykpour tweeted at the time.
Mr Agrawal was later fired by Elon Musk.
Bruke Falck, who was also fired by Parag Agrawal, offered a similar message.
Elon Musk’s memo to Twitter employees
Elon Musk’s memo to Twitter employees, telling them they have been fired, can be read below.
Team,
In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday. We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward.
Given the nature of our distributed workforce and our desire to inform impacted individuals as quickly as possible, communications for this process will take place via email. By 9AM PST on Friday Nov. 4th, everyone will receive an individual email with the subject line: Your Role at Twitter. Please check your email, including your spam folder.
- If your employment is not impacted, you will receive a notification via your Twitter email.
- If your employment is impacted, you will receive a notification with next steps via your personal email.
- If you do not receive an email from twitter-hr@ by 5PM PST on Friday Nov. 4th, please email peoplequestions@twitter.com.
To help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data, our offices will be temporarily closed and all badge access will be suspended. If you are in an office or on your way to an office, please return home.
We acknowledge this is an incredibly challenging experience to go through, whether or not you are impacted. Thank you for continuing to adhere to Twitter policies that prohibit you from discussing confidential company information on social media, with the press or elsewhere.
We are grateful for your contributions to Twitter and for your patience as we move through this process.
Thank you.
In Twitter’s internal Slack, some employees complained about the lack of communication.
“I truly wish you all well - for your sake, for the sake of your teams, and for the sake of the many people and communities this product serves,” one data scientist wrote in a Slack message addressed to leadership that was seen byThe Verge.
“But I also hope [the] failure of this past week hangs heavy on you to remind you to do better.”
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