With a deadline of October 28 for Elon Musk to complete a $44 billion buyout from Twitter Inc TWTR A new report says he plans to lay off nearly 75% of the social media platform’s employees once he takes over the C-suite.
What happened: The world’s richest man has told potential investors in the deal that he would take Twitter’s workforce from 7,000 to 2,000, according to The Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing documents and interviews available to the newspaper.
Even if Musk doesn’t buy Twitter, the company plans to take about $800 million in pay cuts, or about a quarter of its workforce, by the end of 2023, the Post reported.
Twitter users would likely notice the impact of the job cuts immediately, Edwin Chena former Twitter data scientist who is now the CEO of Surge AI, a content moderation startup, told the newspaper.
Hacks and objectionable content such as child pornography would be more likely on the platform with a drastically reduced workforce, Chen reportedly said.
Musk, Twitter face court deadline: Musk initially proposed the take-private deal in April this year for $54.20 per share before withdrawing in July. Spam accounts are to blame for missing information from Twitter.
The move prompted a lawsuit from Twitter, filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery, aimed at forcing the deal to go through.
With deposition approaching and a court date coming up, Musk renewed its original offer to buy Twitter on Oct. 4 and on Oct. 6 Judges Catherine McCormick granted a stay requested by Musk in the case, giving the two parties until 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 28 to reach an agreement.
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