After firing half of the 7,500-person staff earlier this year and making platform modifications that are driving away customers, companies, and advertising, Elon Musk warned that his newly purchased company Twitter would have to file for bankruptcy.
“Sorry that this is my first email to the whole company, but there is no way to sugarcoat the message,” Musk wrote to employees. “Without significant subscription revenue, there is a good chance Twitter will not survive the upcoming economic downturn.”
Since agreeing to buy Twitter for $44 billion last month, Musk has sold over $4 billion of Tesla stock. On Thursday, he informed Twitter staff that he was “saving Twitter” by selling the stock in his other company.
Musk informed staff in an email on Wednesday that he is forcing them to work a minimum of 40 hours per week, on top of major layoffs and unwanted platform modifications.
He stated that he had to personally authorize all requests for remote work after the company’s policy of working from home was discontinued.
Musk also mentioned the new, contentious blue checkmark subscription service in the email, stating that “We need roughly half of our revenue to be subscription.”
In order to counteract false information and fraudulent accounts, the blue checkmark that formerly indicated a user’s confirmed identity is now available to anyone who is willing to pay $8 per month.
It’s unclear if users will eventually need to provide identity proof in order to receive a blue checkmark.
To read our blog on “Twitter non-paying users should be banned, Elon Musk,” click here.
