Elon's New Twitter Move Shows He Isn't Playing Games - He's Cleaning House

Britta Pedersen/Pool via AP

Elon Musk took over Twitter this week, booting a few of the top executives the minute he came through the door, and declaring himself “Chief Twit.” He has now reportedly ordered company-wide layoffs.

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Twitter has about 7500 employees. It’s not clear yet how many have gotten the boot, but the report indicated it was immediate. Musk has said repeatedly that he intends to make the company profitable including by paring down. Before he came in, there were reports he’d told investors that he could lay off as many as 75 percent of the employees. But then he reportedly told employees it wouldn’t be that much.

The report suggested that people would be booted immediately because if the layoffs happen after Nov. 1, employees would get “stock grants as part of their compensation.”

The top executives he already booted — the CEO, chief financial officer, head of legal, and general counsel — were reportedly fired “for cause,” which means they aren’t going get the million-dollar payouts that they would get just for severance.

Twitter’s securities filings show that senior executives are entitled to a year’s pay and accelerated vesting of at least a portion of their unvested stock awards if they are fired for any reason – other than cause – within a year of a company changing hands.

Parag Agrawal, the CEO, who repeatedly clashed with Musk over the number of users Twitter has, was reported to be walking away from his job with $42 million, after being a chief executive officer for just under a year.

Twitter’s former top lawyer Vijaya Gadde, who earned $17 million in 2021, was reportedly in tears in April when Musk’s takeover first came to light. She was in line for a $12.5 million payout, Insider said.

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So not only is he cleaning house he’s holding people accountable for the horrible way in which they’ve handled the site and it couldn’t happen to a more deserving group. Expect lawsuits because these folks are likely to throw a fit to try to get their severance packages. But they’re out and more will be following them.

I wrote earlier in the week about what they were pouring out money on — that the work environment was more like a spa, with a red wine on tap, not to mention that the employees thought that they could dictate demands to the new boss. I’m thinking those people just found out that isn’t a great plan of action.

So much winning.

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