Days after laying off nearly 3,700 employees, including top executives at Twitter, Elon Musk told the remaining staff that bankruptcy was a possibility if it doesn’t start generating more cash.
In his first address to Twitter employees since purchasing the company for $44 billion, Musk issued multiple warnings, including 80-hour work weeks, fewer office perks like free food, and no more working from home.
This comes even as more senior-level executives quit the company. The company’s chief security officer Lea Kissner on Thursday in a tweet said that she quit.
Chief Privacy Officer Damien Kieran and Chief Compliance Officer Marianne Fogarty have also resigned, according to an internal message seen by Reuters. One executive who until Thursday had emerged as part of Musk’s new leadership team, Yoel Roth, has also resigned, according to a Bloomberg report.
‘Watching with concern’
The US Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday it was watching Twitter with “deep concern” after the social media platform’s top privacy and compliance officers quit, potentially putting it at risk of violating regulatory orders. ”We are tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern,” Douglas Farrar, the FTC’s director of public affairs, told Reuters.
Musk, however, seemed unconcerned and said in a tweet on Friday that his companies will be well positioned in 2023 despite the possibility of a tough economy contrary to his earlier statement that Twitter would not be able to “survive the upcoming economic downturn”