If Elon Musk does buy Twitter as agreed, it'll be good news for shareholders and bad news for employees. Apparently, the Tesla boss wants to get rid of most of the workforce.
According to a newspaper report, Elon Musk is planning massive job cuts on Twitter. According to the Washington Post, he told potential investors that he would reduce the number of employees in the event of a takeover from 7,500 to around 2,000. The newspaper relies on insiders and confidential documents. Musk and Twitter initially did not comment.
After months of back and forth, Musk's $44 billion takeover of Twitter is expected to be completed by the end of next week - if trouble doesn't break out again. The responsible judge has imposed a deadline: If the purchase is not completed by October 28th, there will still be a court case.
The Tesla boss had actually agreed on the takeover with Twitter in April. In July, however, he declared the agreement invalid because of alleged misrepresentations about fake accounts. Twitter sued for compliance with the purchase agreement. At the beginning of October, Musk surprisingly renewed his offer to buy the company - on condition that the court case over the takeover - in which his chances were considered relatively poor - is settled. Twitter rejected this. The company is suspicious because Musk makes his offer dependent on financing and may still be keeping a back door open.
Musk said on Wednesday when presenting Tesla's latest earnings results that he and other investors were "obviously" overpaying for the online network. However, Twitter also has "incredible potential". At least that made it sound like he was resigned to closing the expensive deal.
