Elon Musk is already talking about bankruptcy two weeks after he bought Twitter

When we were recording this week’s Gossip with Celebitchy podcast, CB mentioned that she saw something about Elon Musk ending remote work for Twitter employees. I saidthat I thought that was just for Tesla employees, and while that’s true, it turns out that Twitter’s remaining employees are not allowed to do remote work either. CB was right! (She told me that she already edited that part out of the pod anyway!) Elon Musk ordered the handful of remaining Twitter staffers to report to work in the office. Musk did so in his first inter-office email after firing 50% of the staff. But that’s not all! Musk also said some crazy sh-t about how Twitter is going to make money after he f–ked it all up with the advertisers.

Two weeks after closing a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter, Elon Musk sent emails to the employees of the social media company late on Wednesday, his first communications with them after mass layoffs and high-pressure drives to create new products.

In two emails seen by The New York Times, Mr. Musk painted a bleak financial picture for Twitter and outlined changes at the company, including an end to its remote work policy and a renewed focus on generating revenue and fighting spam.

“Sorry that this is my first email to the company, but there is no way to sugarcoat the message,” Mr. Musk, 51, wrote in one email. “The economic picture ahead is dire.” Twitter was too heavily dependent on advertising and vulnerable to pullbacks in brand spending, he added, and would need to bolster the revenue it gets from subscriptions.

In another note to employees, he wrote that “the absolute top priority is finding and suspending any verified bots/trolls/spam.”

Mr. Musk’s emails came as Twitter continues to be roiled by his changes. Last week, he cut about 50 percent of the company’s 7,500 employees. At the same time, Mr. Musk has been pushing for product changes that would help Twitter make more money, including promoting a subscription product. He previously said the company was losing $4 million a day.

Twitter, whose communication department has been almost entirely laid off, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bloomberg earlier reported Mr. Musk’s emails.

On Wednesday, three top Twitter executives responsible for security, privacy and compliance also resigned, according to two people familiar with the matter and internal documents seen by The Times.

[From The New York Times]

No remote work, no communications office, no security and privacy people, next to no ad revenue and Elon Musk’s biggest f–king priority is ferreting out “verified” spam/bots? Like… what? What is his obsession with bots? Bots are a problem, in general, but bots are not the reason why Twitter is in freefall. Musk wouldn’t be in such dire financial straits if only he had a bare minimum of executive or managerial competence either – literally, the advertisers just wanted some assurance that Musk wasn’t going to turn Twitter into a Nazi playground and he could not even give them that assurance. So of course the ad revenues are going down. And I’m sorry, hanging all of his hopes on subscribers? LMAO. There are 396.5 million Twitter users. I doubt even 2% of them would pay to subscribe to Elon’s Nazi ego trip.

Speaking of how much money Musk is losing, he also told Twitter employees that bankruptcy is definitely on the table. Oh my f–ing god.

In a bankruptcy, the banks that lent Musk the money to buy Twitter would likely end up owning much or all of the company and Musk and his co-investors would see their equity diluted heavily or wiped out. https://t.co/IA6136mAzs

— Vikas Bajaj (@vikasbajaj) November 10, 2022

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.