Elon Musk says Twitter has shed more than 6,000 employees
Twitter CEO Elon Musk says drastic cost-cutting layoffs were painful, but necessary
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Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday revealed that more than 6,000 people have lost their jobs at Twitter since he took over the company last October.
In a rare media interview with the BBC, the billionaire said Twitter has about 1,500 people on staff, down from 8,000 when he bought the social media platform in a $44 billion deal. The job cuts were painful but necessary, Musk said.
"The issue is, like, the company's going to go bankrupt if we do not cut costs immediately," he told the BBC, speaking from Twitter's San Francisco headquarters.
He explained that Twitter faced a "$3 billion negative cash flow situation" after he assumed ownership, as advertisers had fled the platform and sent revenues crashing.
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This illustration photo taken on Aug. 5, 2022, shows a cellphone displaying a photo of Elon Musk placed on a computer monitor filled with Twitter logos. (SAMUEL CORUM/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
"This is not a caring-uncaring situation. It's like, if the whole ship sinks, then nobody's got a job," Musk insisted.
"What would you do?" he asked his interviewer. "If you've four months to live, 120 days — in a hundred and 20 days you're dead, so what do you want to do?"
Twitter's communications department was one victim of Musk's drastic cost-cutting. The company now responds to inquiries from journalists with a poop emoji. Others were Twitter's former executive leadership, including those involved in censoring conservatives.
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Elon Musk Twitter account displayed on a phone screen and Twitter logo displayed on a laptop screen are seen in this multiple exposure illustration photo taken in Poland on Dec. 26, 2022. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)
After the mass firings, Musk indicated Twitter is close to breaking even. He claimed that most of the advertisers who left Twitter because of their concerns about hate speech have returned, although he did not give details.
Musk predicted that Twitter could become "cash flow positive" in the current quarter "if current trends continue." Because Twitter is a private company, information about its finances can't be verified.
While Musk has lost money on Twitter — dropping from the world's richest man to only its second-richest — the eccentric billionaire initially told the BBC he wouldn't sell the social media platform for the same $44 billion he bought it for. But he later clarified he might sell the company if he had guarantees its next owner would share his commitment to "truth."
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A sign is pictured outside the Twitter headquarters in San Francisco on Oct. 26, 2022. (AP/Godofredo A. Vásquez / AP Images)
"If I was confident that they would rigorously pursue the truth, then I guess I would be glad to hand it over to someone else," he admitted.
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"I don't care about the money really, but I do want to have some source of truth that I can count on, and I hope that's our aspiration with Twitter, is to have a source of truth that you can count on," Musk added.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.