The Washington Post reported Monday that Musk’s team was discussing shedding 25 percent of its workforce in a first round of layoffs. The reported layoffs come as the tech billionaire overhauls the company after buying it for $44 billion last week. Celebrity attorney Alex Spiro, Musk’s longtime legal representative, led discussions about the impending job cuts, according to the report. When he bought Twitter last week, Musk moved quickly to take control, firing top Twitter executives including CEO Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal and head of legal affairs and policy Vijaya Gadde. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company had more than 7,000 employees at the end of 2021, according to a regulatory filing, and a quarter of the headcount stands at nearly 2,000 employees. Reports that Musk was planning to cut significant parts of the social media company’s workforce have been swirling for weeks. The Washington Post earlier reported that Musk told prospective investors that he planned to eliminate nearly 75 percent of Twitter’s staff in an effort to pay off the debt burden that has grown significantly since the start of his acquisition. Musk later denied those claims, telling employees that he would not cut that much of a staff. The New York Times reported on Saturday that Musk ordered job cuts across the company, with some groups cut more than others, and that the layoffs would take place before the Nov. 1 date when employees were scheduled to receive stock grants. as part of the compensation. “This is false,” Musk tweeted in response to the story. Even before Musk launched his bid to buy Twitter in April of this year, the company had faced financial struggles and by July had “significantly slowed hiring” amid a broader economic downturn in the tech industry. The company was expected to lay off about 25% of its staff regardless of Musk’s buyout. An air of uncertainty has surrounded Twitter and its staff since Musk began his battle with the company earlier this year, offering to buy it before attempting to back out of the deal amid allegations that Twitter underestimated the number of bot accounts and spam on his platform. Musk eventually decided to go through with the deal, making the purchase official last week and immediately starting to overhaul the company. The drama surrounding Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has fueled low morale at Twitter, leaving employees in droves in recent months. The rumors have raised concern about the impact of the mass layoffs on Twitter’s day-to-day operations, including its safety and security capabilities. Reuters contributed to this report.
