Elon Musk orders massive lay-off at Twitter Inc., report claims he wants to avoid paying employees’ stock incentives

The New York Times reported on Saturday that Elon Musk has authorised dismissal at Twitter on a global scale.

Exactly how many people will be affected by the rumoured layoffs is still unknown, but the NYT reports that insiders say certain divisions would be hit harder than others.

It has been alleged that on Wednesday, Musk showed up at Twitter headquarters holding an actual sink and told employees he had no intention of laying off 75 percent of the company’s staff.

There are presently over 7,500 members of staff at Twitter Inc., and as reported by the Times, some managers have received orders to compile lists of people eligible to be sacked.

It’s possible that layoffs will begin on November 1st, the same day that workers are scheduled to get stock grants that “typically represent a significant portion” of their salaries. The New York Times reports that if Musk fires his workers before that date, he may not have to remit the grants.

On Friday, Musk finalised his $44 billion purchase of Twitter and promptly fired several top executives, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and policy leader Vijaya Gadde.

According to a report from The Information, Musk kicked out each executive “for cause,” in an effort to prevent them from getting their separate golden parachutes and large severance packages.

The billionaire made an initial offer to purchase Twitter in April, then tried to back out of the agreement, and finally changed his mind earlier this month.

Not much is known about Musk’s long-term goals for Twitter, but he recently said he wanted the platform to serve as a “common digital town square” where people of different viewpoints can have civil debates without resorting to violence.

Musk, who calls himself a “free speech absolutist,” has users worried about the future of content moderation on the site, but he insists he won’t let it turn into a “free-for-all hellscape” and plans to create a content moderation council to prevent that from happening.