Mohit Oberoi
Twitter has reportedly laid off another 200 employees. The move comes despite its new owner Elon Musk promising that there would be no more layoffs at the company.
The recent round of layoffs includes Twitter payments CEO, Esther Crawford. He founded a screen-sharing and video chat app called Squad which Twitter later acquired. He also headed Twitter blue subscription business.
Notably, in the recent round of layoffs, Twitter has laid off founders of several companies which it had acquired. So far, the company or Musk has not commented on the layoffs. Musk previously called out CNBC for what he said was inaccurate reporting on its headcount.
The social media platform had around 7,500 employees when Musk took over. Its workforce is now reportedly below 2,000. Soon after Musk took over, he fired nearly half of the employees.
There was also attrition after his acquisition as Musk asked employees to either work “hardcore” or quit.
Before the current round of layoffs, Twitter’s internal Slack also went offline apparently because the company did not pay its bills.
Also, more than the layoffs, the manner of firing employees has irked many. A now-deleted post on Blind said, “People receive email at 2am on saturday and access cut immediately. This will go down as one of the most extreme layoff in entire corporate history.”
Previously reports said that Musk fired a Twitter employee who told the billionaire that engagement numbers on his tweets had come down after he acquired the microblogging site.
Musk Fires More Twitter Employees
Many Twitter employees reportedly got to know about their employment status after they were locked out of their corporate e-mails. While Musk has been trying to turn around the company and make it sustainably profitable, so far Twitter has been in the news mostly for the wrong reasons.
Twitter has not paid rent and other dues and is facing multiple lawsuits. It has also auctioned several items in what looks like an attempt to raise cash. Reportedly, several Twitter employees carried their own toilet papers to the office after the company fired janitors.
The company’s financial woes have been intensified by the massive debt that Musk took to acquire it. It reportedly has an annual interest outgo of $1 billion on these loans.
Musk previously flagged Twitter bankruptcy as an option. However, earlier this month, he said that the company was approaching breakeven.
The platform now charges money for the blue tick verification. It is also reportedly looking to charge $1,000 per month for the gold-verified accounts.
However, its core advertising business has sagged as several advertisers pulled out after Musk took over
Musk’s Long History of U-Turns before Acquiring Twitter
If reports of Twitter firing more employees is true, it would be yet another U-turn from the mercurial Musk.
Musk has a long history of making such U-turns. Amid the Russia-Ukraine war, he said that he would stop funding Starlink in Ukraine. However, he soon backtracked and said that the funding would continue.
During Tesla’s Q4 2019 earnings call, Musk categorically stated that Tesla would not raise more capital. Within days, the company announced a stock sale program. It raised $13 billion in three tranches of stock sales in 2020.
Musk also continued to sell Tesla shares despite saying he was done with the selling. Incidentally, he also backtracked from acquiring Twitter and only relented when it became apparent that he would lose the legal battle.
Musk on Cryptocurrencies
Musk has made many U-turns when it comes to cryptocurrencies. In 2021, Tesla started accepting bitcoins as payment for cars and also invested money in them.
Soon enough, the company stopped accepting them as payment as Musk doubted their green credentials. Earlier this year, the company sold most of its bitcoins while Musk said last year that it won’t sell them.
Even on dogecoin, he has changed his stance and the self-proclaimed dogefather called it a “hustle” at one point in time. He also did not accept dogecoin as payment for Tesla cars despite a Twitter poll where the majority voted in favor.
Dogecoin saw buying interest after Musk acquired Twitter. He recently tweeted an image of his dog Floki working as Twitter CEO. Dogecoin and other dog-themed cryptocurrencies rallied after his tweet. You can also buy dogecoin with PayPal.
All said, Musk has a flair to be in news all the time. His Twitter acquisition only seems to have increased his propensity for controversies.
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This article was written for Business 2 Community by Mohit Oberoi.
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