Skip to main content

The most expensive dismissal.

 Elon Musk became Twitter’s owner late Thursday as his $44 billion deal to take over the company officially closed, marking a new era for one of the world’s most influential social media platforms. As one of his first moves, he fired several longtime top Twitter executives, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke anonymously to discuss sensitive issues. One of the people said that Sean Edgett, the company’s general counsel, was also pushed out. The top executives were hastily escorted out of the company’s San Francisco headquarters.

Musk’s late Thursday moves to signal his intentions to put his stamp on Twitter firmly. Musk has publicly criticized the company’s outgoing management over product decisions and content moderation, as well as saying he would restore former president Donald Trump’s account. Still, «Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!» Musk tweeted Thursday in a post offering assurances to advertisers. He showed up at the company’s offices unexpectedly Wednesday, carrying a sink to suggest that the message that he would become owner needed to «sink in,» according to a photo he posted to his more than 100 million Twitter followers.

Musk has suggested that he wants to loosen standards for policing harmful content such as misinformation and hate speech. Some right-wing influencers celebrated Musk’s ownership on Thursday night and have seen their follower counts balloon since he announced his takeover. Musk has repeatedly criticized the company and supported online attacks against individual executives. Musk represents a different kind of owner than Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey or his now-rival Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook. They generally try to stay politically neutral.

Musk has often styled himself as a moderate throughout his Twitter bid, but he also announced that he would vote Republican in the 2022 midterms. He was leaning toward voting for Republican Florida Gov. Those hopes were quickly dashed with the firings of longtime top executives who had commanded the trust of existing staff. But his relationship with top executives rapidly went south. Agrawal took exception to Musk’s April 9 tweet that asked, «Is Twitter dying?» according to text message exchanges revealed in court documents.

Musk laid out his plan in subsequent messages. Roughly two weeks later, Musk and Twitter struck a deal. Then, in an onstage interview, Musk discussed his plans. Twitter executives were predicting internally that the company would be far off track from revenue targets in 2022, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post and people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe proceedings.

Twitter’s board was planning to make «drastic» cuts to staff and other services, including cutting roughly a quarter of the budget for third-party contractors who moderate content for the company, significant amounts to infrastructure and data centres, and firing thousands of people to shave at least $700 million off labour costs, according to the interviews and documents.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Cloud Bookkeeping

H&M struggles with profitability.

  H&M blamed high clothes prices ,  its exit from Rus­sia and a cost-cut­ting pro­gramme for an unex­pec­tedly large col­lapse in its earn­ings as the world’s second-largest fash­ion retailer’s struggles with prof­it­ab­il­ity con­tinue .  Oper­at­ing profit plunged 87 per cent to SKr820mn in the fourth quarter to the end of Novem­ber from a year earlier .  Shares in H&M fell more than 4 per cent to SKr125 . 80 yes­ter­day ,  hav­ing lost nearly half of their value since their recent peak in April 2021 .  The Swedish retailer ,  which lags behind Indi­tex ,  the Span­ish owner of Zara ,  in sales and prof­it­ab­il­ity ,  launched a SKr2bn cost-cut­ting pro­gramme last year that included 1 , 500 job losses . H&M’s sales in the fourth quarter were up 10 per cent to SKr64 . 4bn but flat in local cur­rency terms .  It said sales from Decem­ber 1 to Janu­ary 25 had increased 5 per cent in local cur­ren­cies .  «Sales in ...
2 comments
Read more

Commercial properties continue to fall

  UK commercial property values and rents are projected to «tumble off a cliff edge» in the first quarter of 2023, as estate agents warn offices will fare worst as prices fall. A survey of more than 400 commercial agents forecast a 2.9 per cent decrease in prices per square foot across the industry in the first three months of the year, with offices falling 3.1 per cent. «Where we saw the market stop still, we will see the market finding its level, people working out where things are, where value is,» he said. Listed vehicles have already seen this valuation drop in their share prices, with real estates investment trusts such as Land Securities and British Land falling by a fifth or more this year. According to the RIB estate report, offices are expected to suffer the most significant sales price falls, with nearly a third of respondents expecting them to come down by more than 5 per cent. In addition, the survey projected a 1.3 per cent fall in rents per square foot over the perio...
Post a Comment
Read more

BoE is considering to increase deposit guarantee.

  According to anonymous sources, the Bank of England is considering reforming its deposit guarantee scheme. The move comes in response to concerns that the current system may not be sufficient to protect customers in case of a bank failure. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme guarantees deposits up to £85,000 per person per institution. However, some experts have raised concerns that this may not be enough to prevent a run on banks in a significant financial crisis. As a result, the Bank of England is reportedly considering several options for reforming the scheme, including increasing protection and introducing more stringent bank regulations. A final decision on any changes will be made later this year. One option the Bank of England considers is increasing the protection offered by the deposit guarantee scheme. This could involve raising the maximum amount guaranteed per person or extending coverage to more types of deposits. Another possibility is to introduce more stri...
Post a Comment
Read more