Twitter staff resign en masse

[Pete Ross Junior]

World's richest man posts memes as $44b Twitter acquisition veers off course
The Register (UK)

Twitter chaos continued overnight as employees were locked out of its offices following reports that hundreds have chosen to opt out of the ultimatum set by CEO Elon Musk to become "extremely hardcore."

Just days since Musk appeared to ban working from home, Twitter has informed staff that the company's office buildings will be temporarily closed, according to reports.

In a missive seen by the BBC, Twitter told staff: "Effective immediately, we are temporarily closing our office buildings and all badge access will be suspended. Offices will reopen on Monday, November 21st.

"Thank you for your flexibility. Please continue to comply with company policy by refraining from discussing company information on social media, with the press or elsewhere."

The move followed the passing of a deadline set by Musk, also CEO of electric car maker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX, which required workers to opt into working long hours in an "extremely hardcore" environment. Those who failed to agree were told they would get a three-month severance package.

...

Obviously getting them to resign en masse was part of the plan.

It recently occurred to me that Elon Musk intends to profit from the assets acquired in some manner other than running a social media platform. Like the way the Mafia loots a business after becoming a "partner", but really really big.

[brooklynite]

1. "Obviously getting them to resign en masse was part of the plan."

Why is it "obvious"?

Seems to me that, like Trump, Musk is reacting impulsively to each new development.

[Voltaire2]

4. the people insisting this is 4D chess are way over thinking this. nt.

[Sympthsical]

19. Man's ego is more fragile than a one-legged lamp

[Pete Ross Junior]

26. No 4D chess, just a plunder operation ...

Except the main plunder is information as well as the physical assets.

[spooky3]

6. That's my take, too. It's incompetence combined with

Narcissistic hubris. He’s never successfully turned around a company. Tesla is likely to implode too.

[CentralMass]

10. I can't help but think that a lot of people will be turned off from considering buying a Tesl

over the inhuman way he has treated the employees of twitter.
Then again he may pick up more republican buyers.

[spooky3]

14. Agree. Tesla's stock price is $178.50, down from

A 52 week high of $402. And there are more reports of Tesla cars’ burning up.

[lostnfound]

24. I feel embarrassed to drive one now

But I do get free charging because of the car’s age, which I’ve been using all the time now…95% of my monthly miles have been on Tesla’s dime recently.

[gulliver]

37. The three months severance is a good way to encourage resignations among those who need it

The very best wouldn't need severance at all. This is a bold (possibly stupid) approach. It will be fascinating to watch.

[Voltaire2]

2. no he is going to lose 30B.

There is nothing to loot other than a domain name.

[Kennah]

18. A bonesaw will take the rest

[Pete Ross Junior]

23. There is the physical assets and the stored information. n/t

[Aviation Pro]

3. Of course

He's going to sell the user information to the highest bidder.

[Voltaire2]

5. except he can't as that is under a consent decree

[Aviation Pro]

7. When do silly rules stop motherfuckers?

Never.

[Voltaire2]

13. Oh he can try to sell it but nobody with any sense is going to buy it.

Basically it would be like selling stolen goods. Sure you can do it, but you are going to get about 10% of the value, and there are likely no buyers willing to take the risk.

[getagrip_already]

8. only problem with that is the parts are far less valuable than the whole.....

But I agree it was his plan to vastly shrink the company, and the scope of it's product offering. But he didn't do that to make money.

This was a capture and kill operation. MBS, who is financing musk, will be very happy if twitter no longer operates in a way that humiliates and shines a light on his oppression and crimes.

The guy is spending $6B on a turtle shaped yacht that will probably be scrapped in 3-5 years. Money is a toy to them.

[at140]

11. Bingo! You got it !!

[lostnfound]

22. Capture and kill

Yes that is a plausible explanation. A great descriptive. Will we ever learn why?

[Blue Owl]

9. Hey Elon -- take this job and shove it

[Thrill]

12. I doubt that was the plan. Sounds more like he overplayed

His hand. He’s Been listening to too many people on Wall Street telling him how smart he is.

[Picaro]

15. Twitter Assets?

anyone want to clue me in on what Twitter’s “assets” might be?

I assume that there is substantial intellectual property. But I would be hard-pressed to guess as to the value of this IP.

Bet it is waaaaaaaaay less than $44 billion.

If he wants to attain bankruptcy which “investors” will take the haircut? The Saudis? Peter Thiel?

at this point, I can’t tell if he’s stupid, crazy, or smarter than all the rest of us.

[lostnfound]

21. Well detailed data on large population is valuable but not $44 Billion profitable

Even counting possible blackmail/extortion schemes..
Saudis kicked in a couple billion publicly.
Maybe this deal was accompanied by side deals of investments in musk’s other businesses.
Or he was dared to do it, egged on, when not in his right mind.
Or various entities wanted Twitter blown up for being a check on oppressive regimes.
Or there’s a plan to divert into other streams which are set up to monetize everything more intensely.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

16. Loot assets? Only assets are daily eyeballs. None daily? No assets. 10 pc of past rates? 10 pc value

There is some finely tuned software, hardware, and networking to make Twitter work so simply and well. But that can be replicated, at cost, but under a billion dollars. Not $44 billion.

A fully functioning town square where responsible and irresponsible people mingle and talk with at least some (low level) of civility?

That can't be replicated overnight or in a month no matter how many engineers burn out trying. That's why Twitter had value. Emphasis on "had" because it is teetering on edge while Musk is tinkering.



On the other hand, Musk is crowing that Twitter is setting new records for traffic. I can believe it because he is now the center of attention. But it is not sustainable, obviously.

Musk may be able to create utterly fascinating new interactions out of thin air in a very short time span. But likely he can't because it is not an engineering issue. Other companies with lots of engineers, like Facebook-Meta have tried and failed. (the heralded "metaverse", for example) Not from lack of engineering, but from lack of understanding the product (eyeballs) that they have to sell to their customers (advertisers).

[Pete Ross Junior]

25. The main asset is stored information. n/t

[Bernardo de La Paz]

28. Nope. Stored preferences of the eyeballs rots and has little value after 6 months

Besides, their partners they share info with (the biggies in Big Tech) all get the info very quickly anyway. New customers can't pay as much so would only be able to afford smaller segments or the price of the data would have to be slashed.

As to using that data internally for some chest-bursting alien machine targetting consumers: the data is only good for a few months. A lot of it is topical and people are easily distracted. Topical issues dry up as other issues become topical. People's lives change. That home reno they were online all the time about last year? Long done. In the meantime their dog just got cancer and that's what their eyeballs are focused on.

[Salviati]

17. There's no way that the gutted husk of twitter is worth the $44 billion he paid for it.

This isn't some diabolical but brilliant financial move. Musk is just a narcissistic idiot, and while there might be some marginal knock on benefits to some folks for twitter imploding, on the whole this is nothing more than a colossal unforced business failure.

[TheRealNorth]

20. My tin-foil hat conspiracy is that he is that they are hoping in some way to merge twitter....

and "Truth" Social.

[NowISeetheLight]

31. Maybe something else too?

Musk is a visionary (like him or not). I read this article and thought it actually sounds like something he’d try to do. Basically turn it into a “super-app” that does everything. Like WeChat in China. I don’t care for him as a human being but I will admit he thinks outside the box.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/05/elon-musks-twitter-plans-may-take-inspiration-from-chinese-super-apps.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/04/what-is-wechat-china-biggest-messaging-app.html

[NowISeetheLight]

32. Oh....

How is the weather up there? I’m a Minne-snowda native. Blood has thinned though after 20 years in the desert!

[lostnfound]

27. I suspect that as well, but what an ass to take away what was appreciated by so many people

Hell, it’s a social outlet and therapy tool for tens of thousands, I bet. I’ve witnessed nurses in the pandemic commiserate about their exhaustion and share their warnings with the public. I saw pictures of them facing protestors in front of their hospitals. Others sent them messages of gratitude and encouragement.

In small niches, you build communities of common interest. Have a chance for a casual 2 minute convo with your lifelong favorite novelist. Expand your world listening to Gen-Z activists or ER-doctors or climate scientists as they interact with each other. Reignite wonder in world and science.. it is a vast customizable space.

[NowISeetheLight]

29. Twitter Finances

They’ve lost money almost every year.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/274563/annual-net-income-of-twitter/

Cutting staff to try and become profitable wasn’t going to work. They lost $221m last year alone and $1.13b the year before. I don’t see how anyone could think they’re worth $44b.

[infullview]

30. What assets? Twitter as a media platform IS the asset.

"It recently occurred to me that Elon Musk intends to profit from the assets acquired in some manner other than running a social media platform. Like the way the Mafia loots a business after becoming a "partner","

When twitter ceases to exist there's no more ad revenue. The servers amount to peanuts compared to viewership. He'll be lucky to recoup 1/3 of what he paid and now the brand is so damaged he may not even get that.

[moonshinegnomie]

36. he paid 44b for somehting probaly worth 1/2 that at best

and with the havoc hes casued it might be only worth 10b at best now and probably less

[MagickMuffin]

33. Or a corporation moves offshore, pink slips for American workers

More money for the ceo, cfo, and shareholders. But the top dogs get the biggest payout!

[infullview]

38. I don't doubt that he could try to off-shore for about 1/20th of what he pays current staff

But then, there's a culture change, a language barrier, a very different time zone, and... you will not have the same level of rogue innovation that was given to the original developers. Musk would be a fool if he thought he could act as architect for a complex user interface like twitter and outsource the development.

[moonshinegnomie]

34. who had under a month in the time for musk to destroy twitter pool?

[NowISeetheLight]

35. Good for those resigning

Basically Musk is telling his employees to agree to indentured servitude or quit. His offer of three months severance to anyone not agreeing gets him around the 60 day layoff notification laws in many states. I assume most of these people are salaried so “long hours” means giving up your life. I’ve been a salaried employee and know what it’s like to be taken advantage of. I hope these employees find something better. Either way, just on principle, good for them not signing.

Musk email to employees:

Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore. This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.

Twitter will also be much more engineering-driven. Design and product management will still be very important and report to me, but those writing great code will constitute the majority of our team and have the greatest sway. At its heart, Twitter is a software and servers company, so I think this makes sense.

If you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below:

LINK

Anyone who has not done so by 5pm ET tomorrow (Thursday) will receive three months of severance.

Whatever decision you make, thank you for your efforts to make Twitter successful.