Image: © Andreas Prott/Stock.adobe.com
In a recent call with Twitter staff, Elon Musk reportedly warned that ‘bankruptcy is not out of the question’ for the company.
The Twitter commotion continues as more top executives have resigned following Elon Musk’s takeover.
Twitter’s head of trust and safety Yoel Roth has reportedly left the company and has added “former” to the job description on his Twitter page.
Roth had emerged as a public-facing figure for the company since Musk’s takeover, posting multiple threads on the platform to explain feature updates to users.
Multiple sources claim the company’s head of client solutions Robin Wheeler also resigned. However, Musk was able to convince Wheeler to stay, according to Bloomberg business reporter Kurt Wagner.
Casey Newton of Platformer also said on Twitter he had heard this news from sources. Wheeler posted on Twitter saying “I’m still here”, but provided no further information.
On Wednesday, Wheeler moderated a Twitter Space in which Musk shared his vision for the company with advertisers, which Roth also attended.
Twitter has also lost its chief privacy officer, Damien Kieran, who has also updated his Twitter bio in a similar manner to Roth. The company’s chief compliance officer Marianne Fogarty also resigned yesterday (10 November), TechCrunch reports.
These departures followed the resignation of Twitter CISO Lea Kissner, who shared a post on the social media platform announcing her decision.
These resignations follow a tumultuous period for the company, as Musk recently announced mass layoffs across Twitter’s global workforce and shared controversial feature updates for the platform, such as a monthly subscription for users to be verified.
The shake-up from Musk’s takeover has impacted Twitter’s advertising market. Companies such as General Motors, Volkswagen, Audi and Pfizer recently paused their advertising on Twitter, Insider reports.
‘Difficult times ahead’
In one of his first emails to Twitter’s staff, Musk warned of “difficult times ahead” for the company along with a ban on remote work unless he approves it, Bloomberg reports.
People familiar with the matter also told Bloomberg last week that Musk had removed monthly “days of rest” – introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic – from staff calendars.
CEO of UK software company Temporall, Thomas Davies, said Musk’ stance on flexible working is “backwards looking”.
“Leaders need to put aside personal views on remote working, and focus on really understanding how work gets done within their business,” Davies said. “The data exists to show them. They just aren’t accessing it.”
Platformer managing editor Zoë Schiffer said Musk called a sudden “all hands” meeting with Twitter employers, in which he warned that “bankruptcy is not out of the question”.
In this meeting, Musk reportedly said Twitter has a net negative cash flow of “several billion dollars” and that he recently sold a bunch of Tesla stock in order to “save the company”, according to New York Times reporter Mike Isaac.
10 things you need to know direct to your inbox every weekday. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of essential sci-tech news.
