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Elon Musk tells Twitter employees ‘bankruptcy is not out of the question’
Ad revenue has declined significantly since Musk took over the company.
Two weeks after taking over Twitter, Elon Musk has finally addressed the company’s remaining staff and the message was bleak. Speaking at an all-hands meeting, Musk said that Twitter is losing so much money that “bankruptcy is not out of the question,” The Information and Platformer reported.
Twitter hasn’t turned a profit since 2019, and ad revenue has declined significantly since Musk’s takeover as advertisers pull back from the platform. At the all-hands, Musk said Twitter could have "net negative cash flow of several billion dollars” in 2023, according to The Information. He also suggested that Twitter’s future depends upon the success of the revamped Twitter Blue subscription service.
“The reason we’re going hardcore on subscribers is to keep Twitter alive,” he said.
Musk also told employees, again, that they are expected to work from Twitter’s office, a reversal of the company’s previous “work from anywhere” policy. “If you can physically make it to an office and you don’t show up, resignation accepted," he said, Platformer’s Zoe Schiffer, reported.
Twitter is also rapidly losing the top executives that survived Musk’s layoffs. The company’s chief information security officer, chief privacy officer and chief compliance officer all recently resigned, exposing the company to potential new FTC fines. And two other high-profile executives, head of trust and Safety Yoel Roth and VP of client solutions Robin Wheeler, also resigned on Thursday, Bloomberg reported. (Update: Wheeler is still with Twitter after all. According to Bloomberg, she tried to resign on Thursday, but Musk "convinced her to stay.") The two had joined Musk in a town hall meant to reassure Twitter’s advertisers just one day before.
Meanwhile, the roll out of the new Blue subscription has been rocky. After introducing — and quickly killing — a separate “official” checkmark, there’s been a surge in scammers and pranksters impersonating politicians, celebrities and brands. Musk reportedly told employees that rooting out scammers abusing the checkmark was a “top priority.”
We've reached out to Twitter for comment.
Updated to clarify that Wheeler is still working for Twitter.
