'Draw up lists...': Elon Musk plans to lay off employees at Twitter

Days after acquiring Twitter, its chief Elon Musk has ordered the top management to prepare a list of employees who can be sacked, the New York Times reported on Saturday. Musk, who took control of the US-based microblogging site earlier this week, has already fired three top officials including CEO Parag Agrawal.

Now, he has planned more job cuts and for that, he has asked some managers to "draw up lists of employees to cut". This is in line with reports that came out ahead of Twitter's takeover by Musk, suggesting that the new owner may bring down the workforce - some even suggested that 75 per cent of people could be laid off. 
        
NYT reported that Musk planned to begin laying off workers at Twitter as soon as on Saturday.

Musk has ordered the job cuts across the company, with some teams to be trimmed more than others, the report said, adding that the scale of the layoffs could not be determined at Twitter which has around 7,500 employees.

According to the report, the layoffs would take place before November 1 when employees were scheduled to receive stock grants as part of their compensation. Such grants are a significant portion of employees' pay and by firing workers before this date, Musk may avoid paying the grants.

The new Twitter boss has already told investors that he would take the company private, reduce its workforce, roll back its content moderation rules and find new revenue streams.

Musk took over the charge of the company on Thursday after closing a $44 billion deal. Soon after Musk became the new boss, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, policy head Vijaya Gadde, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, and General Counsel Sean Edgett were reportedly fired.

In a tweet on Friday, Musk said: "The bird is freed."

The business magnate also wrote a letter to advertisers, explaining why he bought Twitter. In a three-page letter, he said it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence. He said there is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right-wing and far left-wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.

Musk said Twitter won't turn into a "free-for-all hellscape" and that there will be consequences for violating the terms. He said users on the platform will still have to adhere to the "laws of the land". "I didn't do it (acquire Twitter) to make more money. I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love...And I do so with humility, recognizing that failure in pursuing this goal, despite our best efforts, is a very real possibility," Musk said. 

With inputs from PTI