Musk's inner circle worked through weekend to cement Twitter layoff plans

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Washington Post

TECHNOLOGY

Musk’s inner circle worked through weekend to cement Twitter layoff plans

The first round of layoffs, led by his lawyer Alex Spiro, will target 25 percent of the workforce

By Elizabeth Dwoskin and Faiz Siddiqui
October 31, 2022 at 5:00 a.m. EDT

SAN FRANCISCO — Members of billionaire Elon Musk’s inner circle huddled with Twitter’s remaining senior executives throughout the weekend, conducting detailed discussions regarding the site’s approach to content moderation, as well as plans to lay off 25 percent of the workforce to start. ... Alex Spiro, a well-known celebrity lawyer who has represented Musk for several years, led those conversations. Spiro is taking an active role in managing several teams at Twitter, including legal, government relations, policy and marketing, according to four people familiar with the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe them, as well as tweets from some of the people involved.

Longtime Musk associates David Sacks and Jason Calcanis appeared in a company directory over the weekend, according to photos obtained by The Washington Post. Both had official company emails and their titles were “staff software engineer.” Musk’s title in the directory was CEO, although that position has not been publicly announced. He refers to himself as “Chief Twit.”

Meanwhile, the team was deciding on what is expected to be a first round of layoffs, which will target roughly a quarter of the staff totaling more than 7,000, according to one of the people. Layoffs will touch almost all departments, and are expected to specifically impact sales, product, engineering, legal, and trust and safety in the coming days, the person said. After engineers, some of Twitter’s highest paid employees work in sales, where several earn more than $300,000, according to documents viewed by The Post.

{snip}

Sacks, a conservative firebrand and donor, has worked with Musk from their days running PayPal together two decades ago. Sacks has posted strong ideas about content moderation online and has criticized censorship from Big Tech. ... Calcanis is also a longtime Musk friend who texted him frequently to offer advice on the deal, including about job cuts, court records showed.

{snip}

By Elizabeth Dwoskin
Lizza joined The Washington Post as Silicon Valley correspondent in 2016, becoming the paper's eyes and ears in the region. She focuses on social media and the power of the tech industry in a democratic society. Before that, she was the Wall Street Journal's first full-time beat reporter covering AI and the impact of algorithms on people's lives. Twitter https://twitter.com/lizzadwoskin

By Faiz Siddiqui
Faiz Siddiqui is a reporter with The Washington Post's technology team. His coverage includes Silicon Valley's ride-hailing giants, nascent mobility startups and companies deploying electric and self-driving vehicles. Twitter https://twitter.com/faizsays

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/10/31/elon-musk-twitter-layoffs/

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Hey if he can get Artificial Intelligence to run the Self-Flying Twitter

it sure will be profitable. Look, ma! No employees!

[dalton99a]

2. Another apartheid trust fund baby, David O. Sacks:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_O._Sacks

Sacks was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and immigrated to Tennessee, United States, with his family when he was five.[11] Though Sacks did not know he wanted to be an entrepreneur, he did not want to work a profession like his father, who was an endocrinologist. He took inspiration from his grandfather, who started a candy factory in the 1920s.[12]

Sacks is a member of the so-called "PayPal Mafia", a group of founders and early employees of PayPal who went on to found a series of other successful technology companies.

In college, Sacks was the co-author – with Peter Thiel – of the 1995 book The Diversity Myth: 'Multiculturalism' and the Politics of Intolerance at Stanford, published by the Independent Institute.[51] The book is critical of political correctness in higher education and argues that more intellectual diversity is needed on college campuses.[51] In 2016, Sacks apologized for parts of the book.[52]

In the February 15, 2022 San Francisco Board of Education recall elections of Members Collins, Moliga, and Lopez, Sacks gave one of the largest contributions to support the recall.[53][54] He is also a significant booster of Republican candidates, sponsoring a Spring 2022 fundraiser for GOP senate hopefuls including JD Vance and Blake Masters alongside his former colleague and partner Keith Rabois. [55]

[SouthernDem4ever]

3. Gee Sacks - thanks for supporting anti-democratic assholes this year

I hope it helps your profits.

[dalton99a]

4. Musk - Thiel - Sacks are the new Masters of the Universe

[SouthernDem4ever]

5. to me they are just turning into

a fascist circle-jerk

[turbinetree]

10. SO in other words Sacks and the bunch are nothing more than racists.....with lots of money....

[C_U_L8R]

6. Laying off the sales force... genius.

That will fix things. No money, no problem. right, Musk?

[AllaN01Bear]

7. so, is the slob father not far behind.

[Ford_Prefect]

8. While early indications are looking bad for future of the golden goose...

The head twit and his coterie of libertarian terrorists seem to be planning to create something similar to Murdoch's dis-infotainment empire.

The resulting sewer of propaganda will be more foul than any TLG tweet.

[JudyM]

13. +1

We need a *shudder* emoji… for the damage that they will probably do to society…

[Yavin4]

9. This is why people "quiet quit"

What's the point of going above and beyond on your job when your job can disappear over night?

[SoBlueInFL]

11. Exactly. And, so many companies no longer give merit-based wage increases. r/o

The only raises that they do give are mere pennies an hour per year. It's almost impossible to believe that people manage to "live" (or rather, exist) on wages that don't even approach living wages.

[Farmer-Rick]

12. I want to be filthy rich just like Musk, pull myself up by my bootstraps

Do you know of a filthy rich family I can be born into?

Are there any filthy rich parents looking at adopting a grown man?

Put me on the list for excessive wealth inheritance.