According to photos obtained by The Washington Post, longtime Musk associates David Sachs and Jason Galaganis appeared in the company’s directory over the weekend. Both had official company emails and their titles were “Staff Software Engineer”. Musk’s title in the directory is CEO, although that position has not been publicly announced. He refers to himself as “Chief Twit”.
Meanwhile, the group was deciding what would be the first round of layoffs, targeting a quarter of its more than 7,000 employees. The layoffs will touch almost all departments, and are expected to particularly affect sales, manufacturing, engineering, legal and trust and security in the coming days, the person said. After engineers, some of Twitter’s highest-paid employees work in sales, where many earn more than $300,000, according to documents seen by The Post.
On Twitter, Musk, Spiro, Sacks and Calacanis did not respond to requests for comment.
The billionaire Tesla owner bought Twitter last week for $44 billion. Musk first made a bid for the company in the spring, then tried to back out months later. Twitter sued to force him to close the deal, and the entrepreneur eventually agreed and offered to buy the company for his original offer price.
Musk has turned to several longtime allies as he begins to overhaul his Twitter.
Sachs, a conservative firebrand and donor, has worked with Musk since their days running PayPal together two decades ago. Posted by Saks Strong ideas Criticized censorship of online content and censorship by Big Tech.
Calaganis was a longtime Musk friend who texted him frequently to advise him on the deal, including job cuts, court records show.
Calaganis Tweeted Twitter said it was “Day Zero” on Saturday with a photo of a coffee mug, saying that he had discussed security issues with bots and trolls with Yoel Roth, the Twitter executive responsible for content moderation policy. Roth later released details of those policies.
On Sunday, Musk released apparently internal messages from Roth about the Twitter metrics, arguing that they showed Twitter’s team and lawyers “deliberately concealed … evidence from court.” The tweet showed Musk using his newfound access to insider information to settle scores.
I met Yoel from Twitter Security today, and as a long-time Twitter user, I was impressed by his dedication and perspective on security issues.
I asked him to open the issue directly to the users. This thread is well worth your time and effort. https://t.co/ocoBjflOqM
— [email protected] (@Jason) October 30, 2022
The new leadership team is asking questions about every aspect of the business, including content censoring, spam and the risks of upcoming elections, the people said.
Another Musk ally who tweeted about his involvement, Sriram Krishnan, a cryptocurrency-focused partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, also tweeted that he was helping with the deal. The company invested $400 million.
Less than three days into Musk’s ownership, Twitter employees were in the dark about any new plans for the company until Sunday evening, according to several employees contacted by The Post, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect their jobs. The company is yet to make a formal announcement about the acquisition. The Department of Communications remained silent. Rumors of layoffs have swirled, with some announcements going out quietly.
The layoffs are expected to begin earlier than Nov. 1, when Twitter employees are scheduled to receive additional compensation related to stock grants. On Sunday, Musk tweeted that it was “wrong” to report on the upcoming layoffs on Twitter next week.
Earlier this year, Musk told prospective partners in the deal that he planned to cut nearly 75 percent of Twitter’s total workforce, leaving the company with about 2,000 employees, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Post. Musk told employees during a visit to Twitter’s headquarters last week that he didn’t plan to cut more than three-quarters.
Another person familiar with the deal, who spoke last week on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said the total number of layoffs would be closer to 50 percent.
Already, Musk has fired four senior executives, sent Tesla engineers to evaluate Twitter’s software code, and tweeted plans to create a content review council of experts.
Meanwhile, explaining the difficulties of his new mission, Musk Tweeted the content This weekend from a disinformation site.
On Saturday, former first lady and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, He posted a tweet Criticizing the GOP for spreading “hateful and deranged conspiracy theories,” he said he emboldened the man who attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, inside the couple’s home in San Francisco early Friday.
“There’s a slight possibility that there’s more to this story than meets the eye,” Musk wrote in a reply to the tweet, sharing a link to an article on the Santa Monica Observer site. described By fact-checkers as a less credible source of support for the far-right. Without evidence, the article alleges that Paul Pelosi was drunk and had a fight with a male prostitute, citing a conspiracy theory previously circulated on the right. Other right-wing influencers with whom Musk interacted online also expanded on the conspiracy story.
Musk’s actions in removing the tweet show that Twitter has a difficult road ahead, especially in navigating Musk’s public actions and gauging what he says in private.
Rachel Lerman contributed to this report.
“Lifelong social media lover. Falls down a lot. Creator. Devoted food aficionado. Explorer. Typical troublemaker.”