By: Arianna Santiago
On Thursday, Oct. 27, Elon Musk bought Twitter after months of trying to back out of the purchase.
In April of 2022, Elon Musk pitched a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion and make the platform private.
After his wants were granted, he tried to back out of the deal due to there being a ‘higher’ percentage of spam accounts than initially reported which Twitter said to be false. It forced Twitter this past July to sue Musk so that the purchase would be complete.
The trial was expected to happen in October, and days before it began Musk agreed to purchase Twitter.
According to USA Today, Musk is “excited about the Twitter situation.”
He acquired the tech giant fully this October–giving him complete control of the platform. It makes Twitter a private company again. Musk has made it incredibly clear how he wants to allow individuals to speak more freely on the app.
“I would say that now one person owning it with one face makes me trust the platform more versus a larger corporation,” said marketing alumna Noelle Singer.
Once Musk fully owned Twitter, he made major cuts to employees, letting half of the company’s staff go. Prior to Musk, Twitter had roughly 7,500 employees. After cuts it was learned that over half of the staff was let go–3,700 jobs.
“I think he’s just on a power trip,” said environmental science senior Katie Martz.
BBC reported that “an internal email” was circulated to staff earlier this past Friday stating cuts were, “unfortunately necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward.”
In San Francisco, Twitter’s headquarters, 784 employees were laid off. An additional 106 were laid off in San Jose.
One individual who was in a late night meeting about Twitter Blue subscription, was unexpectedly locked out of the company’s systems midcall, according to The New York Times.
“He is already rich. Whatever decisions he has made will never personally affect him. Going in and immediately firing all of these employees is such a terrible move,” said Martz. “I don’t think he cares about any of the former employees because it’s not gonna affect him either way,”
Financial pressure for Musk to ensure his deal prospers comes with a $13 billion debt from the buyout. Bank giants, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, are some of the few who originally agreed to invest $12.5 billion in debt.
Twitter’s revenue comes mostly from advertisements. Some popular brands have stopped advertising spending such as Volkswagen and Pfizer.
Musk is already facing legal troubles from five former Twitter employees who filed a class action lawsuit against Musk saying that he failed to give notice of such massive cuts. The Times reported that in an exclusive copy of the dismissal email, laid off workers were told not to talk about their experience.