Elon Musk quickly aims to stop Twitter with jobs
People familiar with the situation say Elon Musk has begun preparing for widespread layoffs on Twitter as the billionaire businessman shakes up the social media giant just days after finalizing $ 44 billion.
According to two people familiar with the situation, Elon Musk asked managers and consultants to suggest which employees should be fired and which should be kept. According to people, Musk is not asking for a specific number of layoffs for Twitter's 7,500 employees. According to one of the people, he prefers to fire those who don't support him as a leader. Musk's spokesperson declined to answer.
After Musk completed the transaction to make the San Francisco social media company private on Thursday night, he quickly fired several key officials, including chief executive and head of legal, political and fiduciary affairs Vijaya Gadde. Executives were expected to receive golden parachutes under the merger agreement; in the case of Agrawal, this amounted to approximately $ 60 million.
Two sources familiar with the case said Musk fired executives "for a reason", implying that he claimed he had a legitimate legal justification for doing so. As a result, payments may be canceled.
According to one of the people, Musk's claim, in this case, is that Twitter was mismanaged and that without him the company's stock value would have plummeted. A person familiar with executives' thinking says they are considering their legal alternatives before making a decision.
It is unusual to refuse the severance pay linked to purchases and the "for just cause" clause often requires misconduct to have occurred. Elon Musk's $ 44 billion Twitter deal The completion of the $ 44 billion deal marks the beginning of a new era for Twitter, in which the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX will work to transform the company's failed operations, spur product innovation, and review moderation. contents.
Elon Musk, now called "Chief Twit", was active on Twitter over the weekend. He shared a penis meme, mocked an automated message that was apparently sent to him but was actually intended for new hires, and made suggestions on upcoming policy changes.
Asked what he was "more messy" on Twitter, he hinted at upcoming layoffs: "There seem to be ten people handling the coding for each person."
He also claimed Sunday afternoon that it was "false" that the layoffs took place before November 1, the next employee stock grant date, to avoid paying full salaries to the dismissed workers. Musk has begun recruiting staff in a war room of trusted lieutenants within Twitter headquarters to help him assess and better understand how the company is working before determining which course of action to take.
Alex Spiro, Musk's personal attorney, is in charge of the company's legal and political affairs and was with Musk at Twitter's San Francisco offices on Friday, according to two sources. Musk, on the other hand, has focused on the product.
Previously he had claimed that he would "personally supervise software development" rather than appoint anyone to any C-suite executive position, according to private messages revealed in court records.
Four sources said David Sacks, a venture capitalist and close friend of Elon Musk, is a member of the team helping Elon Musk's wife.
He is also receiving advice from Antonio Gracias, a former Tesla director and founder of private equity firm Valor Equity Partners, a source said. Former Twitter chief product officer and venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan also tweeted to indicate that he was "helping" Musk "temporarily with other bright people.
Elon Musk Twitter is the one who can make it happen, in his words, I (and a16z) believe this is a very important company that can have a big impact on the world. One of the financiers of Musk's bid to acquire the business was a16z, based in Silicon Valley. Musk's war room, planned layoffs, and part of his team were initially revealed by the New York Times.
Responsible for Twitter's machine learning ethics
Twitter's director of machine learning ethics, transparency, and accountability, Rumman Chowdhury, confirmed to media on Friday that the engineers were initially tasked with printing the code for the last 30-60 days so they could review it with Elon Musk Height earlier if told to shred the documents instead.
Happy Friday everyone, another staff member wrote along with a photo of printed codes.
To prevent employees from becoming dishonest during delivery.
Twitter's source code is currently blocked, barring major updates, until early next week, according to sources. Elon Musk Age, who calls himself a "free speech absolutist", has already been criticized for his proposals to relax Twitter moderation standards, particularly from companies who don't want their ads to appear alongside material. offensive. .
On Sunday he re-released a statement from current Twitter Chief Security and Integrity Officer Yoel Roth, in which he said the company's guidelines for stopping hate speech remained unchanged. In the aftermath of the deal, a small group of mostly fictional accounts had engaged in a "trolling campaign," posting offensive content on Twitter, he continued.
A moderation committee with very different opinions
A moderation committee with very different views was another promise made by Musk last week. He added that no major content decisions or account resets will be made before the board meets.
Elon Musk has already deleted a tweet she posted on Sunday that spread the erroneous rumor that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband was beaten at home on Friday by a prostitute instead of a psychotic assailant. Musk posted early Sunday: "There's a slim chance there's more to this story than meets the eye" and later deleted the post. Some of the lower-level staff were internally pessimistic. One person called the atmosphere tense. Another said it was disheartening to see other Twitter managers bow to Musk and express fear of being fired. Twitter requests for comment were not returned.