Elon Musk, the new CEO of Twitter, is planning to lay off half of the business’s workers by the end of this week in order to turn the company profitable.
Musk is laying off 3,700 of the company’s 7,500 employees, and staff will be told on Friday.
Musk is also apparently eliminating the company’s work-from-anywhere policy and forcing staff to come into the office to work.
The announcement comes after earlier rumors stated that Musk may lay off up to 75% of the company’s employees. However other reports suggested that the figure could be as low as 25%.
The circumstances of the employees’ departure were not immediately known, however the story stated that Musk was considering providing them up to two months’ severance pay.
Musk “ordered the cuts across the company, with some teams to be trimmed more than others,” adding that “some managers [were] being asked to draw up lists of employees to cut.”
Musk took control the firm on Thursday evening, following a six-month legal struggle in which the purchase nearly fell apart and Twitter sued Musk to force him to close on the company.
According to The Washington Post, Musk began his new tenure at Tesla by removing socialist CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and Vijaya Gadde, director of legal policy, trust, and safety. According to the source, Musk also dismissed the company’s general attorney, Sean Edgett, who was led out of the premises.
Musk has recently revealed that he will charge verified accounts a monthly fee to maintain their verified status, which he will now extend to random users who are not famous personalities, a decision that has sparked widespread outrage across the political spectrum.
Musk is also said to be returning the content filtering tools that he briefly halted after taking over, following a meeting with left-wing organisations this week.
Bloomberg News reported that Musk “promised” the groups that he would “restore content moderation tools that had been blocked for some staff by the end of the week.”
Musk’s decision comes after the leaders complained about Musk’s plans “to relax speech protections on the platform and restore the accounts of users who had been removed.”