Musk opens the door to layoffs on Twitter and sets a goal of 1 billion users

Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, addressed Twitter employees for the first time on Thursday, leaving open the possibility of “rationalizing” his workforce, according to audio heard by Reuters. Although he avoided answering directly about whether there will be layoffs under his watch if he ultimately buys the company, he did say that “now, costs outweigh revenues, and that’s not a good situation.”

The tycoon, who offered to buy Twitter for $44 billion, suggested he was determined to close the deal, saying he had big plans for the service. Specifically, he noted that he expects the service to grow to be used by more than 1 billion people worldwide, which is four times as many as use it today.

In a video chat with Twitter’s nearly 8,000 employees, Musk fielded questions about free speech, the layoffs and his plans for the company. The meeting was moderated by the director of HR and Marketing of Twitter, Leslie Berland. The tycoon assured that his role in Tesla has been practical and that he hopes that on Twitter it will be as well, noting that he will be especially involved in the features of the service, according to The New York Times. “I hope you listen to me in this regard,” he added.

Although he did not directly refer to whether or not he will close the purchase, which in recent weeks has been questioned after accusing the management of the social platform of not providing him with the real information about the false Twitter accounts, he seemed to take it for granted. In the conversation with the staff, Musk said that he hopes to rejuvenate the service after taking it out of the stock market and that he will introduce significant changes in its operation. “I want Twitter to contribute to a better and lasting civilization in which we better understand the nature of reality,” he said.

On telecommuting, he noted that he is open to Twitter employees working remotely, because software development is different from building cars (clearly alluding to his telecommuting policy at Tesla), but defended face-to-face work and said he hoped that people would be willing to go to the office more in the future.

The billionaire businessman also made it clear that advertising will continue to be important to the company’s business, despite previously saying he believes Twitter won’t. should serve ads. “I think advertising is very important for Twitter,” Musk said. And he added: “I am not against publicity. But he would probably talk to the advertisers and say “hey, let’s make sure the ads are as entertaining as possible”.

Twitter employees flocked to an internal Slack channel during the session, posting memes and complaining that Musk was not providing helpful answers about his vision for the business, Reuters reported. The employees of the social network have had mixed feelings about Musk, according to the aforementioned American newspaper. And it is that while some are concerned about the repeated criticisms made by the tycoon on Twitter and fear a change in the content moderation policy on the social network, others have highlighted its innovative nature and see in it an option to revitalize the company , which has not been able to achieve the desired user and financial objectives with its previous directors.