Twitter workers ready for more ‘circus’ after Elon Musk torpedo deal
Twitter Inc employees expressed distrust and exhaustion on Friday after billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk ended a deal to buy the social media company that may have begun months of legal wrangling,
Mr Musk said Twitter violated several provisions of a $44 billion merger agreement reached in April, including failing to turn over enough data on spam accounts and letting some executives and employers go. Twitter’s chairman said the board plans to take legal action to enforce the deal.
In candid commentary on the latest development in Musk’s courtship from January, the company’s engineers, marketing leaders and other employees took to Twitter to publicly post memes, such as a rollercoaster ride and a baby screaming into the phone. Others joked about the impossibility of breaking their personal commitments.
Employees have expressed widespread concern about Musk taking over Twitter because of his priorities for cutting headcount and other costs, reducing content moderation, and limiting remote working.
But Musk’s a hypocrite now The offer also signifies a 36 percent premium for the company’s shares. And that could mean a big payday for employees and other shareholders.
graphic-Elon Musk inks $44 billion Twitter deal
After months of relentless headlines, a Twitter employee told Reuters on Friday he felt more exhausted about the road ahead.
“I can’t believe it’s really over,” the employee said on condition of anonymity.
Amir Shevat, whose Twitter bio says he works on the company’s developer products, posted on the service shortly after news of Musk’s termination, “End of season – what a cliffhanger…”
Jared Manfredi, whose profile says he works on iOS products, wrote on Twitter, “If only this wasn’t the start of a long-drawn court battle to reduce the purchase price and a further indeterminate amount.” The continuation of the circus will be the end of time.”
Reuters could not independently verify the information in his profile, and he did not immediately respond to requests for comment via private messages.
Twitter told employees last month that it was on track to increase the number of users who viewed ads by 13 million during the recently-ended second quarter, its highest target ever. Twitter is yet to announce its second quarter results.
Musk, who is the chief executive of automaker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX, told Twitter employees at a video townhall later in the month that he wanted to grow the company from 229 million to at least 1 billion users. He also told them that users should be allowed to post “very derogatory things”.
Musk, a prolific user of Twitter, has said that by owning a social media service, he can make it more enjoyable and maintain it as an essential public platform.
In a regulatory filing on Friday, his lawyer said Twitter had taken a stand to keep the physical components of its existing business organization largely intact, by firing two managers, a part of its talent acquisition team, and setting up a hiring freeze. had violated the provisions of the deal. The job offer also cited the resignations of three leaders of the department.
Twitter had over 7,500 employees by the end of 2021.