Twitter's new boss Elon Musk is looking to lay off about half of the social media giant's workforce, news agency Bloomberg reported on Thursday. As the billionaire plans to bring down costs following his $44 billion acquisition of the firm, nearly 3,700 of the 7,500 staff (as of the end of 2021) may lose their jobs soon, the sources cited by Bloomberg said.
Musk, who is expected to inform employees about his decision on Friday, shall also roll back Twitter's work-from-anywhere policy and ask remaining employees to report to offices. However, some exceptions could be made, the sources said.
The development comes after the world's richest person acquired Twitter in a whopping $44 billion deal on October 27. He also fired the social media company's four top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, finance chief Ned Segal and legal executives Vijaya Gadde and Sean Edgett.
This was followed by the exits of Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Berland, Chief Customer Officer Sarah Personette, and Jean-Philippe Maheu, vice president of global client solutions.
As per the report, Musk and a team of advisers have been weighing a range of scenarios for job cuts and other policy changes at San Francisco-based Twitter. It added that the terms of the headcount reduction could still change.
One of the scenarios being considered is that workers who shall be let go will be offered 60 days' worth of severance pay, two sources said.
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While a few employees with director and vice president jobs have been laid off, they added other leaders were asked to make lists of employees on their teams who could be asked to leave.
Senior members in product teams have been told to target a 50 percent reduction in headcount, the report claimed. The lists are being reviewed by engineers and director-level staff from Tesla Inc., the carmaker also run by Musk.
Layoff lists were drawn up and ranked based on individuals' contributions to Twitter's code during their time at the company, people told Bloomberg, adding that both Tesla personnel and Twitter managers made the assessment.
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In recent weeks, Musk started hinting at his staffing priorities, saying he wants to focus on the core product. “Software engineering, server operations & design will rule the roost,” he tweeted in early October.
As the “Chief Twit” has indicated the focus on revenue generation, the company will also make blue tick badge an $8-a-month subscription-based feature. This could go live as early as Monday, the report said.