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San Francisco (AFP) – Tycoon Elon Musk plans to fire nearly 75% of Twitter’s 7,500 employees if he manages to buy the social network, according to information published Thursday by The Washington Post.
The head of Tesla and SpaceX has indicated to potential investors that he intends to reduce the company to about 2,000 employees, according to the American newspaper.
But even if Musk fails to buy Twitter, the platform plans to lay off almost a quarter of its staff by the end of 2023, according to sources at the newspaper.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request from AFP.
The capricious executive made a takeover offer that was accepted by the group’s board of directors at the end of April, saying then that his priority was not profitability but the defense of freedom of expression.
He later tried to unilaterally abandon the deal, accusing the company of lying to him about its fight against automated accounts and spam.
Twitter filed a lawsuit in early July, and Musk finally assured earlier this month that the deal would go through. The judge postponed the trial, which was due to take place this week, and gave both parties until October 28 to reach a new agreement.
In mid-June, during a question-and-answer session with employees of the San Francisco company, the businessman stressed that his goal was to reach one billion users – instead of the current 230 million – and diversify sources of income .
He also underlined the importance, in his opinion, of a less strict moderation of content, within the limits defined by law. His opinion clashed with that of many Twitter employees, associations and Democratic lawmakers, who instead called on social networks to do a better job of combating hate speech, harassment and disinformation.
His speech revealed the magnitude of the gap between his view of the company and that of many Silicon Valley employees.
