Elon Musk (50) lowers the bar for Twitter high. At the first question and answer session with employees of the US short message service, the Tesla boss announced the goal of increasing the number of users to at least one billion. That would more than quadruple the number of users: Twitter currently has 229 million users worldwide.
At the same time, Musk, who announced the takeover of Twitter for $44 billion in April, wants to handle growth with fewer employees. In his opinion, job cuts are necessary, as is an austerity course, said the 50-year-old during the video conference: “At the moment, the costs are exceeding the income.” But anyone who is relevant to the company has nothing to fear. At the end of last year, Twitter had 7,500 employees. Facebook comes to 45,000 for comparison.
It was Musk’s first time answering questions from the Twitter workforce. He arrived ten minutes late for the video conference and pondered the existence of extraterrestrials. Twitter should help “civilization and awareness,” said Musk, who otherwise gave few details about the planned takeover.
The tech billionaire went on to say that he also wants to be involved in the product development of the service after the acquisition. Musk said he expects employees to listen to his feature suggestions. At the same time, he once again emphasized his rejection of the home office, but said that if someone was “extraordinary”, it could probably be allowed. He said he’s sticking with ads, just to make sure they’re “as entertaining as possible.”
Reach with hate speech: Musk wants to open the platform again for Trump and Co
Musk also reportedly reiterated his stance that Twitter should be allowed to spread radical positions. He himself advocates “moderate political positions”. In his opinion, however, Twitter users should also be allowed to spread outrageous things. The billionaire had previously announced, as Twitter owner, the ban against the former US President donald trump want to pick up on the platform.
Dispute over fake accounts: Musk still reserves the right to withdraw
Many employees expressed disappointment after the meeting on the internal communication channel Slack. Twitter stock fell more than 2 percent in late trading. However, it is still unclear when the takeover is to take place at all. Meanwhile, Musk had declared the deal on hold because he I have doubts about the information on the number of fake accounts. Twitter countered that Musk could not unilaterally put the agreement on hold and was determined to enforce it. Musk has offered $54.20 per Twitter share, the current price is around 37 euros. Many observers assume that Musk will try to lower the purchase price.