Sources: Elon Musk plans to begin layoffs at Twitter as soon as October 29, before staff are scheduled to receive stock grants on November 1
The billionaire planned to begin layoffs as soon as Saturday, people with knowledge of the matter said. — SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk planned …
New York Times
Context & Ripple Effects
The layoff planning emerged against a sharply contested baseline: pre-acquisition documents contemplated cuts of nearly 75% under Musk, while Twitter’s alternative plan targeted roughly 25% of staff; a contemporaneous company memo said it could not confirm Musk’s plans. The reported timing puts workforce reductions ahead of scheduled equity vesting.
Twitter employees scheduled to receive November 1 stock grants face job-loss uncertainty before those grants vest, making equity treatment an immediate compensation issue.
Twitter managers must execute a reported reduction that later coverage says reaches sales, product, engineering, legal, and trust and safety, disrupting the teams responsible for revenue, product delivery, and policy enforcement.
Second-order effects
The reported equity-payment assurance shifts a potential dispute over vested compensation into an administrative and cash-payment obligation for Twitter as it restructures.
A smaller sales and product organization pairs cost reduction with less internal capacity to sell, build, and govern the service, increasing the pressure on remaining teams to cover multiple functions.
Third-order effects
The progression from contingency plans to a reported 25% reduction and then a reported half-workforce target points to an owner-led operating model in which payroll is reset rapidly rather than trimmed incrementally.
The trend: Twitter’s reported cuts are part of a broader shift toward post-acquisition cost resets that concentrate operational responsibility in a smaller workforce.
If you took away government subsidies, family money, and weird fanboys, Elon Musk would be the manager of a Long John Silver taping up signs about how nobody wants to work these days https://twitter.com/...
We use polite euphemisms like “erratic” to describe Musk's misbehavior but here he's quite consistent: He doesn't believe in honoring $44 billion deals he signed and he doesn't want to honor $100 million deals his company agreed to. https://twitter.com/...
Twitter was profitable as a public company, even if only slightly. But still, if a business is employing 7,000 people and is in the black, what's wrong with that? Why does it have to be WIDLY profitable rather than mildly so
>>The layoffs at Twitter would take place before a Nov. 1 date when employees were scheduled to receive stock grants as part of their compensation...By laying off workers before that date, Mr. Musk may avoid paying the grants.<< https://twitter.com/...
Apparently doing this to get rid of people before their vesting on Tuesday. Seems almost certainly will end up in court, as I'm pretty sure California requires 60 days notice for mass layoffs... https://twitter.com/...
Based on reporting from both The Information and The New York Times, Musk firing in a way to attempt to not have to pay severance is already happening. Making up things that would qualify as firing for cause seems to be the angle he'll take (and is already taking) https://twitter…
Layoffs could happen as soon as today at Twitter. Some managers have been asked to make lists of people to cut. Latest on the saga w/ @kateconger and @sheeraf. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Article suggests layoffs could be up to 50% of a 7,500 person company by Tuesday. Will be absolute chaos. Half the people drawing up lists of people to fire will get fired because they're on someone else's list. https://twitter.com/...
Yet to be seen just how Elon Musk will change things on this website, but the people who make a living off trolling, misinfo, and rage politics are pretty psyched. From @JasonAbbruzzese and me. https://www.nbcnews.com/...
The fired Twitter executives which so many liberal journalists are crying over — one of whom was Victim of the Week a few months ago when she was criticized on Twitter — will probably be OK.🙏 https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
“Making Twitter a private company gives Mr. Musk some advantages... privately held firms do not have to make quarterly public disclosures about their performance. They are subject to less regulatory scrutiny and can be more tightly controlled by an owner” https://www.nytimes.com/…
Steve Jobs' wife owns The Atlantic. Bezos bought the Washington Post. Salesforce CEO owns TIME magazine. A biotech billionaire owns the LA Times. A Thai billionaire owns Fortune magazine. But Elon Musk buying Twitter is the end of our sacred democratic norms?
“Unlike publicly traded companies, privately held firms do not have to make quarterly public disclosures about their performance. They are also subject to less regulatory scrutiny and can be more tightly controlled by an owner.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
✅Musk will face pressure from banks that lent him $12.5bn for the deal to begin repaying debt. ✅Musk borrowed $7.1bn from equity investors. He may face pressure from them who might want him to take Twitter public so they can recoup their investment. https://www.nytimes.com/...
I hope Elon taking over Twitter will mean at least a few negative consequences for the people who turned our whole society into a clout-chasing hate-fest.