Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk, who addressed Twitter employees for the very first time through an internal video call on Thursday, said that the company “needs to get healthy” financially and also bring the cost down.
According to the BBC, Musk has hinted at potential job cuts in the social micro-blogging platform if his $44 billion (£35.8billion) takeover bid is successful.
Musk offered $44 billion to acquire Twitter in April. In the meantime, Musk has also said he may terminate the deal if he is not given data about fake accounts in Twitter.
The report said that the SpaceX founder also addressed topics such as remote working, freedom of speech, and potential extra-terrestrial life.
Musk, on a wide-ranging video call with Twitter employees, said layoffs at the firm would depend on the company's financial health. “The company does need to get healthy. Right now the costs exceed the revenue,” he said.
During the meeting, Musk said that there has to be some rationalisation of headcount or else Twitter won’t be able to grow in the future.
He, however, added, “Anyone who’s... a significant contributor should have nothing to worry about", while adding that his preference for working from the office unless “somebody is exceptional”.
However, Musk did not provide an update on takeover discussions. Meanwhile, Twitter employees also took to an internal communications channel to express their disappointment about Musk's views on the business and employee compensation.
Besides Twitter, Musk’s another company, SpaceX, the private rocket firm, has terminated jobs of at least five employees after they drafted and circulated an open letter criticising the Tesla CEO.
The SpaceX employees have called on executives at the firm to change the company’s work culture to make it more inclusive, according to news reports.