Elon Musk plans to cut Twitter workforce by 75%, Washington Post says

BENGALURU - Billionaire Elon Musk told prospective investors in his deal to buy Twitter that he planned to get rid of nearly 75 per cent of the social media company’s 7,500 workers, the Washington Post reported on Thursday (Oct 20), citing interviews and documents.

The job cuts are expected in the coming months, no matter who owns the company, according to the report.

Twitter’s current management planned to pare the company’s payroll by about US$800 million (S$1.14 billion) by the end of next year, a number that would mean the departure of nearly a quarter of the workforce, the report said.

Human resources staff at the social media company have told employees that they were not planning for mass layoffs, but documents showed that extensive plans to push out staff and cut down on infrastructure costs were already in place before Mr Musk offered to buy the company, the Washington Post reported.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Mr Musk had tried to walk away from the deal to buy Twitter in May, alleging the company understated the number of bot and spam accounts on its platform, which started a series of lawsuits between the two parties.

Earlier this month, Mr Musk reversed course and said he will proceed with the deal on original terms.