Once Elon Musk’s $44 billion transaction for the social network is completed, he will reportedly terminate approximately 75% of Twitter’s staff, which equals 5,500 employees to reduce the size of the workforce to 2,500, Washington Post reported.
Earlier this month, Steve Bannon shared during his sit-down interview with OANN New York correspondent Caitlin Sinclair that he had been informed by reliable sources that Twitter had offered Elon Musk a price cut in exchange for his commitment to two conditions.
“Twitter came back and said, hey, we’ll actually knock a couple of billion dollars off the price if you commit to two things,” Bannon said.
The two conditions were as follows:
- Trump and other conservatives that were already banned should not be reinstated.
- The same management team will continue to be employed.
“My understanding is that Elon Musk was not prepared to do either one and said, NO, the deal is a deal,” Bannon said.
Now, Elon Musk is set to lay off 75% of Twitter’s staff.
“The mega-billionaire has told potential investors in the Twitter deal that he plans to lay off almost 75% the company’s staff, or about 5,500 employees, to reduce the size of its workforce from 7,500 to just over 2,000, the Washington Post reported, citing anonymous sources and documents,” Variety reported.
The outlet reported:
On Tesla’s third-quarter 2022 earnings call Wednesday, Musk said he was paying too much for Twitter. He agreed to go forward with his original $54.20/share offer for Twitter, after spending three months attempting to back out of the deal. “Although, obviously, myself and the other investors are obviously overpaying for Twitter right now, the long-term potential for Twitter in my view is an order of magnitude greater than its current value,” Musk said.
Per the Post story, Twitter management had planned to cut its payroll by $800 million by the end of 2023, representing a 25% reduction in headcount. As such, Musk’s $44 billion acquisition is a “golden ticket for the struggling company,” according to the Post article, “potentially helping its leadership avoid painful announcements that would have demoralized the staff and possibly crippled the service’s ability to combat misinformation, hate speech and spam.”
After Musk tried to nix the deal to buy Twitter, the company sued him, seeking to enforce the terms of the merger agreement. The Delaware Chancery Court judge overseeing the case granted Musk’s motion to halt the trial until Oct. 28 to let him secure the debt financing he needs to close the deal.
Last week, Elon Musk was under investigation in regard to his Twitter acquisition, according to a report from Bloomberg News.
“Elon Musk is presently under investigation by federal authorities for his conduct in connection with the acquisition of Twitter,” attorneys for Potter Anderson Corroon LLP wrote in a filing dated Oct. 6 and unsealed Thursday.
“Through counsel, he has exchanged substantive correspondence with those authorities concerning their investigations,” the said.