Musk visits Twitter HQ, promises staff he won’t fire 75% of them

Elon Musk visited Twitter headquarters in San Francisco yesterday and reportedly assured staff that he doesn't plan to eliminate 75 percent of their jobs. Musk told employees "that he doesn't plan to cut 75 percent of the staff when he takes over the company, according to people familiar with the matter," Bloomberg wrote.

Musk's statement comes a week after a Washington Post report stated that "Musk told prospective investors in his deal to buy the company that he planned to get rid of nearly 75 percent of Twitter's 7,500 workers, whittling the company down to a skeleton staff of just over 2,000." Twitter employees reportedly slammed Musk in an open letter circulating within the company, writing that "Elon Musk's plan to lay off 75 percent of Twitter workers will hurt Twitter's ability to serve the public conversation" and that a "threat of this magnitude is reckless, undermines our users' and customers' trust in our platform, and is a transparent act of worker intimidation."

According to Bloomberg, Musk "denied the previously reported number in an address to employees" at the San Francisco office. Despite telling workers he won't get rid of three-quarters of them, Musk "is still expected to cut staff as part of the takeover," the article said.

Musk has an October 28 deadline to complete the $44 billion Twitter purchase, stemming from an order by Delaware Court of Chancery Judge Kathaleen McCormick. Twitter sued Musk after he tried to break their merger agreement, and a trial was originally scheduled for October 17. McCormick's order delaying the trial said it will be rescheduled for November if the merger isn't completed by 5 pm tomorrow.

Twitter shares are due to be suspended from trading on Friday in anticipation of the closing. The stock price has been rising since Musk reversed course in early October in order to avoid a trial and is now close to the $54.20 per-share price that Musk agreed to pay.

Musk also assured advertisers today that he intends to prevent Twitter from becoming a "free-for-all hellscape."

Financing appears on track for Friday close

Although Twitter recently cast doubt on Musk's financing, things appear to be on track for a Friday closing. "Banks have started to send $13 billion in cash backing Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter, according to people familiar with the matter," The Wall Street Journal wrote yesterday.

Musk had committed to provide up to $33.5 billion toward the purchase price himself.

"Mr. Musk late Tuesday sent a so-called borrowing notice to the banks that agreed to provide him with the debt for the purchase, one of the people said," according to the Journal article. "That kicked off a process that is currently under way by which banks will deposit funds they are on the hook for into an escrow account after hammering out final details of the debt contracts, the people said. Once final closing conditions are met, the funds will be made available for Mr. Musk to execute the transaction by the Friday deadline."

Yesterday, Musk tweeted a video of himself walking into Twitter headquarters while carrying a sink. "Entering Twitter HQ—let that sink in!" he wrote. He changed his Twitter bio to "Chief Twit."

Musk's sink served as a visual aid for his "let that sink in" pun, but it's possible there are other meanings too. "In business parlance, 'kitchen sinking' means taking radical action at a company, though it is not clear if this was Mr. Musk's message," the BBC wrote in a story about Musk's visit to Twitter. Kitchen sinking can also refer to a communication technique in which a business or political party "release[s] all of [its] bad news at the same time rather than creating a drip-drip effect over an extended period of time," according to a 2015 BBC article. There's also the more widely known "everything but the kitchen sink" expression, but Musk appeared to be carrying a bathroom sink.