Twitter staff have been told that their jobs are safe for at least six months, until Elon Musk takes over under the terms of a $44 billion deal to take control of the company, agreed on Monday.
CEO Parag Agrawal and Bret Taylor, the chair of the board, addressed staff at 5pm ET on Monday – dodging questions about whether Donald Trump would be allowed to rejoin, and saying instead that it was a question for Musk.
Concerns about immediate job losses were allayed, with employees told that business will operate as usual until a deal closes in next six months, Bloomberg’s Kurt Wagner reported.
Staff were told there would be no layoffs ‘at this time’ – but no guarantees were provided when Musk takes over.
But in a sign of the possible internal unrest, new product launches were delayed amid fears, Bloomberg speculated, that employees could ‘go rogue’ and ‘push something or mess with the product on the way out the door.’
Ahead of the meeting, staff were asked to submit questions, and many were asking about a possible forced return to the office for the all-remote workforce. Others fretted about their shares, journalist Yashar Ali reported.
In internal message rooms there was uproar, The New York Times reported.
‘I feel like im going to throw up..I rly don’t wanna work for a company that is owned by Elon Musk,’ one staffer said, according to their reporter Talmon Smith.
Live shot of Twitter HQ at this very moment pic.twitter.com/XceYVa0VLl
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) April 25, 2022
h/t CharlieFoxtrot