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Musk To Fire 50% Of Twitter's Workforce Tomorrow

The SF Chronicle is reporting that Musk will be firing 50% of the Twitter workforce on Friday. In addition, he's cancelling the work-from-policy. All workers will be required to be in-person at the San Francisco headquarters. I knew a few people who moved to Idaho, Washington and Oregon who will have to make some decisions.

This might trigger an exodus, where the good employees will rush to get out the door, and find jobs elsewhere, before the market saturates.

EDIT:
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Employees were sent an email today, and told that by 9am Pacific time Friday, workers would receive an email with the subject line: “Your Role at Twitter.”. Those keeping their jobs would be notified on their company email. Those losing them would be told via their personal email. Twitter's headquarters will be closed tomorrow.
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Burnley123 · 41-45, M
He's also charging monthly fees for blue-ticks. He is running down staff costs to make it more profitable. I really hope his venture fails.
Northwest · M
@Burnley123 He plans on charging $8 per month for "verified" accounts. Smooth move. Nothing like charging for a free application, to drive up actual daily use.
Elessar · 31-35, M
@Burnley123 I have a hard time believing that Twitter will be a major platform in one year from now, if the direction its taken doesn't change. This might be the next Parler in the making, once the extremists take over anyone else leaves for something different (and that includes investors and advertisers)
Burnley123 · 41-45, M
@Elessar I hope you are right. His business ventures will probably succeed in 'evil' capitalist terms because they will reduce costs and increase revenue. 8 dollars a month won't really matter (of its own) to the blue ticks.

I think that the thing that is going to f*** him is the moderation policy. If he has huge problems with that and a credible alternative is created then Twitter will absolutely collapse. This is what I want to happen. In addition, the fact that he is such a divisive, high-profile political figure adds extra incentive for people to jump ship. This is about Musk as a person, not just the platform.

I've thought for a while that mainstream opinion has been moving against him. The left has never liked him and now mainstream liberals are becoming increasingly hostile. Basically, nobody respects him apart from a few libertarian tech-bros and the hard right. He needs tacit support from a wider group to make the platform work and he won't get that.
ViciDraco · 41-45, M
@Northwest honestly it's even worse than charging for a free application. "When something is free on the internet, YOU are the product" holds extremely true for Twitter. People who bother to get blue checks usually tend to draw a lot of eyes to the platform. Meaning those are the people who are making Twitter the most money. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
Northwest · M
@ViciDraco The Wall Street Journal is reporting, this morning, that the major brands, have already placed an ad-placement hold, on Twitter advertising, and that money is getting diverted to Google and Meta.

The latest are General Mills and Volkswagen/Audi.

Musk is trying to assure advertisers, privately, that he's not going to turn Twitter into a free-for-all, which is not exactly what he said he wants to do when he bought the company. So, to make Twitter financially viable, he will have to "moderate", and to moderate, he needs the employees he's firing now.

To increase ad revenues, he needs all the executives, and groups, that already made a quiet exit since the deal closed, and by all, I mean they all left, every single executive managing Twitter's ad revenue and advertisers relationships has already left the company.

At the end of the day, and again, to make the company financially viable, he's going to have to moderate, AND have people in place to make it happen.
ViciDraco · 41-45, M
@Northwest imagine having the sheer wealth to pull a 44 billion dollar whoopsie and still being able to put up a facade of confidence because your livelihood hasn't actually been impacted that much.
Northwest · M
@ViciDraco He brought about $12B into the deal, backed by his Tesla stock holdings. The rest of the debt was assumed by a group that includes Larry Ellison and a few other douche bags. And in another first, the banks that financed the deal, after the lost $500M on paper, since the deal was announced, decided to treat it as "hung debt", as in they're keeping it on their books, instead of weaponizing their brokers, to sell the debt on various secondary markets (just like mortgage companies do).