Breaking: Elon Musk appoints himself CEO of Twitter as employees brace for mass layoffs

Elon Musk has appointed himself CEO of Twitter and dissolved its board of directors, it was revealed in a company filing on Monday, as Twitter employees brace for extensive layoffs under a new restructuring that could target up to a quarter of staff.

The Washington Post reported on Monday that Musk’s team has been discussing letting go of 25% of the company’s workforce in a first round of layoffs.

The reported layoffs come as the tech billionaire overhauls the company after buying it for $44bn last week. Celebrity lawyer Alex Spiro, a longtime Musk legal representative, led the conversations about the impending job cuts, according to the report.

Upon buying Twitter last week, Musk moved quickly to seize control, firing top Twitter executives including chief executive Parag Agrawal, finance chief Ned Segal and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde.

Musk has also fired Twitter’s board of directors and appointed himself as the board’s sole member, it was revealed on Monday in a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Musk later said in a tweet that the dissolution of the board was “just temporary”.

Musk previously changed his Twitter bio to “Chief Twit”, alluding to his new role.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company had more than 7,000 employees at the end of 2021, according to a regulatory filing, and a quarter of the headcount amounts to nearly 2,000 employees.

Reports that Musk planned to cut significant parts of the social media company’s workforce have been swirling for weeks. The Washington Post earlier reported Musk told prospective investors he planned to eliminate nearly 75% of Twitter’s staff in an effort to pay down the debt burden that has grown substantially since the start of his acquisition.

Musk later denied those claims, telling employees he would not cut such a large portion of the staff.