Two top Twitter leaders fired as the company tries to cut costs ahead of Musk takeover
Twitter’s current CEO Parag Agrawal announced that Twitter will no longer be hiring new employees for the time being, and that offers to current prospective employees may be rescinded. This comes in addition to the firing of two of Twitter’s top leaders. Head of consumer product Kayvon Beykpour, who was fired while out on paternity leave, and Twitter’s general manager for revenue Bruce Falck are both being fired. All of this to cut costs ahead of Elon Musk’s $44bn takeover.
Although Agrawal cited a difference in the direction Twitter is taking as the reason for the firings, cutting costs is still at the top of the agenda and likely played a crucial role in the decisions.
Ironically, while many Twitter employees lament about the purchase by Musk, fearing that his free-speech absolutism will disrupt their cushy liberal bubbles and may even net them a firing, the current CEO is desperate to cut costs to the point that he has fired two long-time company leaders. One of whom was even out on paternity leave at the time.
Musk is predicted to fire around 1,000 Twitter employees after the takeover is complete, although his long-term plan is to increase Twitter’s total employment by thousands more.
From the Daily Mail:
Within the next three years, Musk anticipates making thousands of new hires, swelling the ranks to around 11,000 employees, up from 7,500 currently.
Much of the new talent is likely to be in the field of engineering.
Numbers at the company would fluctuate rising to 9,225 employees this year before falling to 8,332 in 2023. Then adding a further 2,700 workers by 2025.
On a company level, Musk has previously floated the idea of closing down the San Francisco headquarters in order to save money and that board members may also not receive a salary, shaving off another $3 million in expenses.
Elon Musk is expected to take over as temporary CEO after the purchase.
Musk’s financial plans for Twitter are ultimately to increase revenue by over 5 times its current $5bn, and to reduce reliance on advertisers for said revenue to half as much as its current 90%, and to eliminate board member salaries.
In a series of plans laid out to accomplish this, Musk also hints that he will increase Twitter’s revenue through payment services and may even champion the meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin as a valid way of paying on Twitter.
