Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

[LadyTevar]

I hope there is a mass exodus with everyone taking the 3month package. That's what the twat deserves.

[LadyTevar]

I wonder how many employees will react with "Bye, Felicia"?

Heh... I posted just a second behind.

[bilateralrope]

I wonder how many employees will react with "Bye, Felicia"?

I'd say "too many to keep the company functioning", but Musk passed that point with his first round of layoffs.

[Broomstick]

It's like Musk is planning to destroy this company.

[Solauren]

More and more, Musks behaviour reminds me of a few bbs's (pre internet) and discussion forums I've seen over the years. Especially the later that changed management.

Asshole is like "I'm in charge", and proceeds to act like an asshole, then wonders what happened when the admin staff and users leave.

I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't a mass exodus back to Facebook, or to Instagram, or similar, as Twitter slowly implodes.

Say what you want about Mark Zuckerberg (since he owns Meta Platforms, which now owns Instagram), compared to Musk when it comes to social media and management, he's the better choice.

[aerius]

It's like Musk is planning to destroy this company.

Good. I hope he destroys his reputation and fortune as well.

[LadyTevar]

It's like Musk is planning to destroy this company.

I've been wondering if it's a deliberate "You didn't let me back out so F**k You I'll kill it!" reaction.

[Broomstick]

It's like Musk is planning to destroy this company.

Good. I hope he destroys his reputation and fortune as well.

Yeah, good, except for all the wreckage left behind in other peoples' lives....

I don't give a fuck about Musk. I don't have some empathy for people working at Twitter who had no say in this shit-show and now have to re-arrange their lives because a spoiled brat is having a shit-fit.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

It's like Trump's White House all over again!

[Solauren]

It's like Musk is planning to destroy this company.

I've been wondering if it's a deliberate "You didn't let me back out so F**k You I'll kill it!" reaction.

I speculated that earlier.

I'm now thinking, if it is, he's deliberately doing it the slow painful way. So the people that built Twitter get to watch as suffers a slow, painful death, , hoping desperately for something to change, until they're just praying for someone to finally show mercy and put it out of it's misery.

[LaCroix]

Nope.
This is not a planned action.

This is exactly what happens when a narcissist manager doesn't get his way with his pet project.

1. Assert authority - fire a lot of people, make them cower in fear.
2. Fire all the potential resistance leaders that pop up.
3. Force the remaining people to take up the slack, work longer hours (refuse to pay the overtime for bonus points).

That's the way he works people at Tesla and SpaceX, which kinda works there because people really want to work there for both are some unique status workplaces. Tesla less so since other brands are having electric car production facilities opened, but if you want to design cars or rockets, your choice is slim...

For a tech company? Changing seat every couple of years is already a standard here, so people will just migrate over to other projects - a software engineer is one of the most versatile worker, mostly independent of the product he works on. You can quit at twitter and start working at Nasa or a bank, and it's all the same after a few weeks of read-up.

[Broomstick]

There's a side of me that would love to see Twitter staff leave en masse and no one willing to take a job there, leaving Musk alone holding massive debt.

[Solauren]

There's a side of me that would love to see Twitter staff leave en masse and no one willing to take a job there, leaving Musk alone holding massive debt.

Odds are, if that happens, we may see alot of the platforms source-code leaked out.

[LadyTevar]

There's a side of me that would love to see Twitter staff leave en masse and no one willing to take a job there, leaving Musk alone holding massive debt.

Odds are, if that happens, we may see alot of the platforms source-code leaked out.

One can ONLY hope.

[Zaune]

Haven't found a better source for this than a screenshot of a tweet, but apparently Musk has initiated a lock-out because he's afraid the mass redfundancies might lead people to sabotage the servers on their way out. (Pretty sure he's managing that all by himself, but okay.)

Unfortunately, he didn't make sure everyone had gone home for the day before revoking their security passes, so about fifty staff have been locked in because the gate to the car park won't open for them. Someone from Facilities has been sent to fetch a saw.

I think we finally have an official canon answer to the question of who Dilbert works for.

[LaCroix]

According to tweets, 75% of employees did NOT sign up to his "hardcore" vision. (Seems only the people on work visa were stuck and had to click yes, or face deportation...)

Good luck running an IT company with only an 1/8th of the original crew...

Twitter is probably going to be a dumpster fire for however long they manage to keep t running.
Because if Elon tries to rehire about 4-5000 software enginees (he already was understaffed before the 2nd great idea...) that will take time, also, aLOT of money - because there is only one way to get so many people leave their jobs and hire on to a company that just showed they hate their employees

Frankly, I doubt he will get anyone but a handful of people who can't get any other gig - good luck running twitter with those...

[Jub]

What a spectacular way to light $44 Billion on fire while possibly costing even more than that due to lawsuits and other costs incurred during or after the purchase.

[bilateralrope]

Haven't found a better source for this than a screenshot of a tweet, but apparently Musk has initiated a lock-out because he's afraid the mass redfundancies might lead people to sabotage the servers on their way out. (Pretty sure he's managing that all by himself, but okay.)

Unfortunately, he didn't make sure everyone had gone home for the day before revoking their security passes, so about fifty staff have been locked in because the gate to the car park won't open for them. Someone from Facilities has been sent to fetch a saw.

I think we finally have an official canon answer to the question of who Dilbert works for.

Were the people locked in the building or just unable to access the car park to get their vehicles out ?

Because I suspect that the local police and fire marshal will be unhappy if it was the first one.

[Lost Soal]

It's like Musk is planning to destroy this company.

I've been wondering if it's a deliberate "You didn't let me back out so F**k You I'll kill it!" reaction.

I speculated that earlier.

I'm now thinking, if it is, he's deliberately doing it the slow painful way. So the people that built Twitter get to watch as suffers a slow, painful death, , hoping desperately for something to change, until they're just praying for someone to finally show mercy and put it out of it's misery.

No, because he completely fucked up the whole leveraged buyout. Done "properly", the buyer borrow a load of money then once bought they sell the debt to the company then when everything dies the debt is solely on the company and they walk away having made a profit. Musk however secured his bank loads against his Tesla stock so he will always be on the hook with the banks being able to force him to sell stock or outright take ownership of the stock used.
This is just the guy who said, during a deposition, that he knows a lot about legal stuff because he's been sued so many times.

[bobalot]

Well, he's convinced himself and his legion of followers that he is an engineer with no relevant qualifications.

So why not being an expert at law as well?

I declare myself an expert on surgery because I once went to a hospital.

[Iroscato]

Well, he's convinced himself and his legion of followers that he is an engineer with no relevant qualifications.

So why not being an expert at law as well?

I declare myself an expert on surgery because I once went to a hospital.

"BREAKING: Elon Musk creates 150 million jobs by ignoring reality, named greatest industrialist in history"

[Solauren]

You know, at this point, I'm honestly surprised we are not seeing anti-drug campaign adds showing Musk as his height, and then spiralling down to this.

"All from a single hit. Kids Don't Do Drugs"

Yeah, that's not how it works, but I can imagine someone trying it.

[ray245]

It's like Musk is planning to destroy this company.

Good. I hope he destroys his reputation and fortune as well.

Yeah, good, except for all the wreckage left behind in other peoples' lives....

I don't give a fuck about Musk. I don't have some empathy for people working at Twitter who had no say in this shit-show and now have to re-arrange their lives because a spoiled brat is having a shit-fit.

Most of the staff at Twitter have skill sets in heavy demand by other industries. So they'll probably get much better pay and treatment elsewhere than Twitter.

In an industry where there is actually a shortfall in skilled workers, this is the least worse outcome of Twitter imploding. The vast majority of the staff will be able to get new jobs really easily.

Not to mention working at Twitter helps with their CVs.

Because companies looking to hire the staff will know its obvious it was not the staff's fault Twitter imploded. They all know who is to blame, Musk.

So in a weird way...Musk actually helped his employees who got fired or were laid off.

[Zaune]

Were the people locked in the building or just unable to access the car park to get their vehicles out?

Because I suspect that the local police and fire marshal will be unhappy if it was the first one.

I think it was just the car park. Even if Musk was stupid enough to have people's passes disabled while they were still at their desks the building would still have emergency exits, and/or front desk staff who could be persuaded to unlock the main door manually.

[bilateralrope]

Twitter in chaos as employees accept Musk’s invitation to quit their jobs

Musk jokes through crisis, says record numbers "logging in to see if Twitter is dead."
JON BRODKIN - 11/19/2022, 4:13 AM

The situation at Twitter grew even more chaotic over the past day as all remaining employees were forced to choose whether to stay and meet owner Elon Musk's demands or leave now and take three months' severance. Musk had sent an ultimatum to staff earlier this week, saying they must commit to "working long hours at high intensity" in order to keep their jobs.

"lf you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below," Musk wrote. "Anyone who has not done so by 5pm ET tomorrow (Thursday) will receive three months of severance."

As the deadline passed yesterday, at least hundreds of employees reportedly didn't fill out the form and thus chose to leave. Twitter reportedly informed staff that it was closing all office buildings and disabling employee badge access until Monday.

"In Twitter's internal chat tool, over 500 employees wrote farewell messages on Thursday, a source familiar with the notes said," according to Reuters.

"The best people are staying, so I’m not super worried," Musk wrote.

Half may have left, but reports vary

Exactly how many people opted into staying at Twitter isn't clear yet. Twitter reportedly no longer has a communications department to relay information to the media, but it's possible the company will be left with a skeleton staff compared to what it had just a few weeks ago.

"Less than half of the company's remaining roughly 4,000 employees chose on Thursday to stay at the company and sign up for Musk's 'Twitter 2.0,'" Business Insider reported last night, citing "a person familiar with the company's processes."

When Musk took over Twitter on October 27, the company had around 7,500 employees. Musk laid off about half of them barely a week later, but the company asked back dozens who apparently were laid off by mistake. Musk also laid off thousands of contractors and banned remote work, likely guaranteeing more employee departures.

With "#RIPTwitter" and "#TwitterDown" trending, there were rumors suggesting without concrete evidence that 75 percent of remaining employees left. That percentage may be true at least in specific parts of the company. "Out of one group of about 60 employees, roughly 50 percent to 75 percent told colleagues they planned to depart, one person said Thursday morning," The Wall Street Journal wrote.

The New York Times described a poll of almost 250 people that came up with a departure percentage of nearly 75 percent:

On Blind, a social platform where anonymous users talk about their workplaces, a poll of nearly 250 people associated with Twitter showed that about 73 percent favored taking the severance package over staying. People who decided to stay still believed in Twitter's mission of giving people a voice or had visas tied to their jobs or other personal reasons, two people said.

Critical systems in jeopardy after staff cuts

Though Musk still has at least some employees, a Washington Post report suggested some groups won't have enough people to keep things running for long:

Recent departures have left multiple critical systems down to two, one or even zero engineers, according to a former employee who was familiar with the situation and spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation.

"I know of six critical systems (like 'serving tweets' levels of critical) which no longer have any engineers," the former employee said. "There is no longer even a skeleton crew manning the system. It will continue to coast until it runs into something, and then it will stop."

Musk relaxed his remote-work ban, telling employees Thursday they would be allowed to work remotely if their managers assert they are making 'an excellent contribution,'" the Post article said.

Musk: Record numbers “logging in to see if Twitter is dead”

Musk, who bought Twitter for $44 billion, including $13 billion of new debt that caused the company's interest payments to soar, tweeted a series of jokes as the latest crisis of his own making unfolded.

"How do you make a small fortune in social media? Start out with a large one," Musk tweeted last night. With his stay-or-leave ultimatum roiling the company, Musk tweeted a skull and crossbones and an image of a gravestone with a Twitter logo. But Musk also called Twitter very much "alive," at least based on the metric of users logging in to see whether Twitter still exists.

"And... we just hit another all-time high in Twitter usage lol," Musk wrote. Hours later, he wrote, "Record numbers of users are logging in to see if Twitter is dead, ironically making it more alive than ever!"

While Musk seems pleased, the drastic reduction of Twitter's staff has real consequences beyond the impact on people losing their jobs. "Elon Musk has swiftly decimated Twitter's ability to maintain the platform's integrity, health and safety. His reckless actions, including sacking most of his staff and compelling others to leave, have caused an explosion of hate speech, conspiracy theories and fraud on the site," Free Press co-CEO Jessica González said in a press release today.

González was one of numerous advocacy group leaders who met with Musk about content moderation plans a few days after he bought the company. She expressed cautious optimism after that meeting but says his actions since then have been destructive.

"I even met with Musk to emphasize the point: Undermining community standards and moderation is a recipe for disaster," González said today. "If there is one lesson that all social media platforms must take away from this debacle, it's that without protecting users from hate and lies, you have no company at all. Invest in the health and integrity of your platforms or risk extinction."

Lots of people quit because of Musk asking them to agree to the abuse that he's going to do to them. The number of people who quit is unclear. Multiple critical systems with zero engineers left to work on them.

Meanwhile Musk thinks he kept the best people.