Twitter has told its staff that it has no plans for mass layoffs after U.S. media reports said Elon Musk wants to cut 75% of its workforce after its $44 billion (£38.4 billion) takeover.
The company’s lead lawyer sent an email to employees on Thursday evening clarifying its position, according to Reuters, citing a source.
In response to the Washington Post report, Musk told potential investors in the Twitter deal that he planned to lay off nearly 75% of its 7,500 employees.
It said the information was gathered from interviews and documents.
However, the report added that some job cuts were inevitable once the takeover was completed, claiming that the existing management plan was to slash Twitter’s payroll by around $800 million (£715 million) by the end of next year.
The Washington Post said that could mean as much as a quarter of the workforce lost their jobs.
Twitter has not yet responded to the report.
Talk of imminent mass layoffs has had a bumpy road to acquisitions.
Tesla and SpaceX boss revealed on October 4 that he will Continue to provide full offermade in Aprilbefore legal action Twitter A lawsuit was due to be filed against him later this month to renegotiate the deal.
Musk, a longtime Twitter user who has been critical of his free speech credentials, sought better terms, citing the social media company’s refusal to disclose the true number of spam accounts on the platform.
That leaves a big question mark about its true market value, he argues.
U.S. tech stocks have been battered since the deal, as the country’s central bank has raised interest rates in response to a global inflation crisis and investors’ cash has turned to the safety of dollars and government bonds.
In the case of Twitter, the slump took shares from $44 (£39) a share on April 14 to $32 (£28) when the bid was officially withdrawn in July.
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The offer price, which Musk initially agreed to and paid with the help of banks and other investors, was $54.20 (£47) a share.
Shares of Twitter are currently trading at $52.
Financial analysts still think he is overpaying, with some estimates putting it as high as $20bn (£17.6bn). Others speculated that the switch was a further delaying tactic.
The consensus, however, is that if Twitter wins the default case, he could get a multibillion-dollar bill — and he gets nothing.