After firing a number of employees during his reign as Twitter CEO, Elon Musk plans to rehire some of them in the company, citing that his recent slashing of them had a deep impact.
From the previous headcount of 7,800, Musk terminated the employment of 80% of the employees inside the social media company in an effort to cut costs.
Now, he claims that he needs some of the 6,300 people back.
“Desperate times call for desperate measures… Unfortunately, if you do it fast, there are some babies who will be thrown out,” Musk told CNBC anchor David Faber, addressing his plans to rehire some of those he let go.
In that interview, Musk also brought up his recent hiring of former NBCUniversal sales executive Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter. The tech mogul then says Yaccarino would do great at the social media platform — considering it an ‘advertising-dependent business.’
"Desperate times call for desperate measures," Elon Musk said Tuesday on the layoffs that shed more than 6,000 jobs at Twitter. Musk added that he thinks Twitter now needs to hire more people and possibly "rehire some of the people that were let go." https://t.co/1lqWEJEvNr pic.twitter.com/1uiN3xzukn
— CNBC (@CNBC) May 16, 2023
“Twitter is very much an advertising-dependent business, and Linda is obviously great at that,” Musk said. “My skills and interests are in technology.”
Musk also claims that the company faced a dire financial situation during his takeover. The company during his takeover had a negative $3 billion in cash flow, and only $1 billion in cash remained.
Musk’s tweets on the platform have been mostly conspiracy theories. The tech mogul was asked by Faber why he would tweet a conspiracy theory about billionaire financier and philanthropist George Soros when some of Twitter’s advertisers or Tesla unit owners might contradict it. He answered that he is implementing ‘freedom of speech’ on the platform.
Musk also stressed that he is not an anti-Semite. He claims that he is rather a ‘pro-Semite.’
Musk, then, in October 2022, closed his Twitter takeover and then sold it for half the price when he bought it from founder and former executive Jack Dorsey.
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