At The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council, the enigmatic Elon Musk suggested that some of the big-name tech companies, like Twitter for example, have a bit too much headcount and need to trim the fat. As executive chairman and Chief Technology Officer at Twitter, he knows what it would take to make frugal but effective budget cuts without compromising productivity.
Elon Musk chimes in on the tech industry’s troubles when job losses have crested 200,000 this year, with 165K layoffs in 2022 alone. His recent acquisition of Twitter for a whopping $44 billion could be one reason why the platform’s personnel shrunk from 7500 employees to just 1000. It appears tech jobs aren’t safe– not even after a big purchase like this.
Musk argued that many employees were engaged in activities that lacked significant value. He suggested that this situation was not unique to Twitter but was likely prevalent in other Silicon Valley companies as well. Musk used an analogy, describing past meetings at Twitter where one person had an accelerator while the other nine possessed brakes, hindering progress.
Despite the reduced staff strength, Twitter has been actively rolling out new features and functionalities in recent months. Musk highlighted that the platform had introduced more advancements in the last six months than in the previous six years. He stated that Twitter would be adding more employees, without providing further details, but mentioned that around 1,500 new hires would be a reasonable number.
Elon Musk had this to say about Twitter’s finances: pretty much even — yet his expectations for the company are high. He’s sure that by June, the platform will generate more money than it spends. In short, Twitter has rolled up its sleeves and is striving to restore itself.
We contacted Twitter about this, but all we got back was a robotic reply—it failed to address the issue. It’s still uncertain how other tech firms will manage Musk’s opinion and whether they’ll think of money-saving plans to better their efficiency and fiscal standing.