Elon Musk to sack half of Twitter staff and end working from home
Elon Musk plans to sack half of Twitter staff and end working from home in a bid to reduce costs following his tumultuous $44bn (£38bn) takeover.
The world's richest person will reportedly announce the redundancies affecting 3,700 staff on Friday and force employees back to the office from Monday.
Mr Musk has already sacked Twitter’s senior leadership team, including its chief executive, and a number of other high profile executives have resigned since he took over the company.
Its most recent exits include its head of accounting, head of marketing and its advertising chief.
Mr Musk, who has described himself as ‘Chief Twit’ on his Twitter profile, will lay out plans to reduce headcount by half on Friday, Bloomberg reported. Laid-off workers will be offered 60 days' worth of severance pay in one scenario being considered, two Twitter sources told Bloomberg. Mr Musk previously denied reports that up to 75pc of Twitter staff could be let go.
The Tesla chief executive will also end the social media company’s “work from anywhere” policy, brought in after the coronavirus pandemic, on Monday.
Staff at Twitter have been largely left in the dark as to the billionaire’s plans and many have had little or no communication from the company’s head office. A planned all-staff meeting on Wednesday was abruptly cancelled.
Bloomberg reported that Tesla engineers had been brought in to review Twitter’s code, and that engineering lay-offs were being decided based on employees’ contributions.
Twitter’s top executives, including its chief executive and heads of finance and legal, were reportedly sacked “for cause”, meaning they could be denied a $100m golden goodbye.
The Telegraph has been told that Mr Musk is planning widespread cutbacks at Twitter, although he has not confirmed the scale of the redundancies.
It comes amid concerns from advertisers and civil liberties groups that Mr Musk’s plans to boost free speech on the social network could lead to an increase in hate speech. He is also considering whether to remove permanent bans on hundreds of accounts, which could include former US President Donald Trump.
On Wednesday night, Mr Musk tweeted a poll asking if advertisers should support “freedom of speech” or “political correctness”. Last week, car company GM also paused advertising spending.
Advertising sources have said that a number of major brands are concerned the changes could reduce moderation on the social network and may pull their ads if Mr Musk follows through.
On Thursday, the brewer Carlsberg said it had paused advertising spending on Twitter following Mr Musk's takeover, the Financial Times reported.
A spokesman for Carlsberg said: “We have advised our brand teams to pause advertising activities and we are monitoring the situation closely.”
This week Interpublic Group, a major advertising company, recommended its clients temporarily pause ad spending on Twitter.
Mr Musk promised civil liberties groups on Monday that he would restore access to content moderation tools on Twitter that had been blocked for some staff since he took over the company, Bloomberg reported.
The Telegraph has contacted Twitter for comment.
