With Elon Musk’s intention to out rightly purchase of microblogging platform, Twitter generating shockwaves in the world, the billionaire is said to have apparently floating the idea of cutting jobs at Twitter in a bid to improve the bottom line of the company, as he seeksto raise funds to acquire the social media platform.
According to a Bloomberg report, Musk specifically mentioned job cuts in his discussions with banks despite having no access to the non-public financials of Twitter at that time, with the Washington Postreporting that the Tesla CEO discussed making “efficiencies” at the company in the conversations with bankers, “which could include job cuts.”
The likely configuration of Twitter though uncertain under Musk’s ownership, that is taking cognizance of the breakthrough of his $44 billion bid to acquire the company, the only clue of what he intends to achieve with the platform can only be evident from his own words in the press release he made to that effect.
He had said:
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated. I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential — I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”
It is worthy of note that job cuts has not been publicly discussed either publicly or through proxies and it remains unsure if that is part of Musk’s hidden agenda as he seeks to consolidate on his ownership of the company.
Musk had in the past criticized past decisions by Twitter and most vocal of them is his numerous tweets about opening up free speech on the platform and an area where the SpaceX owner may seek to make cuts is the company’s policy department. Musk had in the past dissolved the PR department at Tesla, and there is a strong possibility that Twitter’s communications groups could as well be placed under scrutiny.
Elon Musk had publicly said he is not interested in Twitter for the money despite allegedly discussing with bankers on ways to improve the bottom line.
On April 14th at the TED, Musk had said: “This is not a way to sort of make money. My strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization. I don’t care about the economics at all.”
Ayoola Faseyi, an Abuja based Journalist with interest in Technology and Politics. He is a versatile writer with articles in many renowned News Journals. He is the Co-Founder of media brand, The Vent Republic.
