Money, layoffs, changes
Each of his ideas only makes it worse: Many Twitter employees fear Elon Musk
Elon Musk dressed visibly to his net worth for the Met Gala.
© Angela Weiss / AFP
Current Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has his hands full. With every new indication of the plans of the future owner Elon Musk, the unrest of the employees grows behind the scenes.
There is a lot of rumbling in the house of Twitter. Although Elon Musk has not yet taken over the company – and it is still unclear whether the deal will work as desired – the nervousness of the employees is huge. This is also due to the fact that the future owner publicly announces almost every day what he intends to do with Twitter in the future.
Fears less money and layoffs
For the current boss, Parag Agrawal, this primarily means stress. The whole herd is in turmoil and he has to keep his flock under control somehow. It was only last Friday that he had to ensure calm during a company-wide meeting. The fear after the takeover by Musk could threaten salary cuts or layoffs is great.
Agrawal does not seem to have anything more than insubstantial but pacifying words at the moment. In response to specific questions from its employees, it was said that Twitter had always taken care of its staff and would continue to do so. Exactly what that means remains open.
The big plan
The trigger for the concerns was just one of many announcements that Musk made as part of the deal. He mentioned salary and staff to lenders as possible levers for profit maximization and cost-cutting measures.
But the list goes on. The following happened recently around Twitter:
- Certain Twitter accounts are to be subject to a fee, especially corporate and government profiles. (Tweet from May 4th)
- After around three years, Twitter is to go public again, freshly renovated (“Wall Street Journal“)
- Musk is looking for investors to help fund the deal to ease the loan on his Tesla shares (“Reuters“)
- All profiles of “real people” should be marked (Tweet from April 21st)
- Executive Board salaries are to be dropped (Tweet from April 18th)
It’s becoming increasingly clear that Musk is about more than just introducing an edit button and removing automated spam accounts from the platform. He cited the relaxation of rules as the biggest reason to buy, in order to offer “freedom of expression” more space again. According to the billionaire, the platform was too restrictive and had to rethink in this regard. The implementation of this plan would also entail numerous changes to the company’s previous orientation.
Shareholders don’t quite believe in the deal yet
For employees at Twitter, the future will probably remain uncertain for the time being. As mentioned at the beginning, it is not yet clear whether Musk will ultimately be able to take over Twitter. This is also shown by a look at the current share price, which last closed at $48.87. Musk quoted a purchase price of $54.20 per share as part of the negotiations. If it were decided that the takeover would take place, there would not be a difference of almost ten percent between the purchase price and the current price.
If the deal bursts at the last second, the price should initially go downhill significantly – and cause unrest on Twitter. But if it works, the billionaire is on the trigger and will put his plans into practice bit by bit – the prospects are apparently not rosy at the moment either. In a report by the “New York Times”, Stanford professor David Larcker shows his understanding for the situation of employees at Twitter. He summarizes, “The catch is that after the acquisition, it could be a very different company than what you got to know when you hired it. It’s an uncomfortable working relationship.”
Sources: New York TimesTwitter, Wall Street Journal