Musk tells Twitter staffers company must ‘get healthy’

Elon Musk warned Twitter staffers its business needed to “get healthy” and undergo a “rationalisation of headcount” as he addressed the social media platform’s employees directly for the first time since launching his $44bn takeover bid.

Speaking at a planned employee meeting via video link, Musk laid out a bold vision for Twitter’s future if he succeeds in taking the company private, including increasing the number of people who use the platform to at least 1bn, according to a person familiar with the situation. The company has 229mn monetisable daily active users — logged-in users to whom the platform shows advertising.

However the billionaire Tesla chief executive also hinted that lay-offs or a restructuring might be in store, adding: “Right now costs exceed revenue. That’s not a great situation.”

The hour-long meeting, during which questions from employees were read out to Musk, came after the entrepreneur accused Twitter’s leadership of failing to provide sufficient data on fake accounts and breaching its obligations around the deal. This has prompted speculation over whether he is manoeuvring to renegotiate at a lower price or walk away altogether. 

Musk first made his bid for Twitter in April on the promise of bringing “free speech” to what he dubbed the “digital town square”, and rowing back against content moderation restrictions. On Thursday, he doubled down on those proposals, adding that he believed “pretty outrageous” tweets should be allowed on the platform, the person said. 

Musk said that advertising would remain important to driving revenues but that he hoped to diversify into payments, subscriptions and paid-for user verification. In an early presentation shared with investors, he said he would seek to quintuple revenues to $24.6bn by 2028, according to a source familiar with the document.

Morale at Twitter has been low throughout the process, with many employees uncertain about job security if the deal is finalised, or, if it falls through, whether the company’s share price might be hit.

Some fear Musk’s leadership style will clash with Twitter’s more freewheeling workplace culture. Musk for example has recently insisted that his Tesla employees show up for at least 40 hours a week in the office or find another employer — in stark contrast to Twitter’s promise during the coronavirus pandemic that employees can “work from home full-time forever” if they so choose. 

During Thursday’s meeting, Musk softened his stance slightly, saying that excellent Twitter employees might be able to work remotely.

Additional reporting by James Fontanella-Khan