Elon Musk spent the weekend creating plans with his inner circle to lay off 25% of Twitter's staff, report says
- Elon Musk plans to lay off around a quarter of Twitter's staff, The Washington Post reported.
- His team, led by Alex Spiro, and remaining Twitter senior execs spent the weekend crafting plans, per The Post.
Elon Musk's team spent the first few days after he took ownership of Twitter crafting plans to lay off around a quarter of staff, The Washington Post reported.
The publication reported that Musk's inner circle and the remaining Twitter senior executives who weren't fired in a purge on Thursday spent the weekend discussing plans ranging from content moderation to chopping the company's workforce, which stands at roughly 7,500, per the company's 2021 annual report.
One person familiar with the discussions told The Post that the first round of layoffs would target around 25% of the company's workforce and cover almost all departments, with an emphasis on sales, product, engineering, legal, and trust and safety.
Twitter didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, made outside of regular working hours.
Rumors of mass layoffs have been circulating over the past few months in anticipation of Musk's takeover, though different figures have been cited and conversations among Twitter staff about potential layoffs have been clouded with uncertainty.
After Musk's deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion went through on Thursday, the tech mogul appears to have started conducting a huge review of both the company and its staff.
This includes asking the social media platform's managers to carry out performance reviews and send lists of which employees should be kept on, people familiar with the discussions told Insider.
Some Twitter engineers were called into meetings where Tesla's team evaluated the quality of recent changes made to Twitter's code and identified top performers, a person familiar with the process told Insider. Musk's team also assigned some of Twitter's engineers projects to work on over the weekend.
Insider reported that there was a sense among workers that some of their recent tasks were a test by Musk's team to see who works hard.
Workers have been arguing over Slack about whether job cuts will happen, people familiar with the situation told Insider. Staff in Twitter's offices in San Francisco and New York spent the weekend trying to find out who would be fired and how their roles would change under Musk's ownership, The Post reported.
After Musk's deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion went through on Thursday, one of his first moves was to fire CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, and general counsel Sean Edgett.
Musk had previously told prospective investors that he planned to lay off around three quarters of Twitter's total workforce, per documents viewed by The Post, though when he visited the company's headquarters on Wednesday he told staff he didn't know where that figure came from.
A person familiar with the deal told The Post that Musk is more likely to lay off around half of Twitter's staff. A person familiar with the matter told The Financial Times Musk wants to fire people who don't support him as the company's leader rather than laying off a certain percentage of workers from the company.
When asked what was the "most messed up" thing at Twitter, Musk said Saturday: "There seem to be 10 people 'managing' for every one person coding."
The talks over the weekend were led by Musk's personal lawyer Alex Spiro, The Post reported.
Musk and his team have been working from a previously unused floor in Twitter's San Francisco headquarters, Insider previously reported. Others present included long-time Musk associates David Sacks and Jason Calcanis, per reports and social-media posts.
The tech mogul has hinted at plans to overhaul the platform, including cracking down on bot accounts and focusing on free speech.
Do you work for Twitter? Or have you been affected by the layoffs? Contact this reporter at gdean@insider.com using a non-work email.