Elon Musk tells Twitter staff at first all-hands meeting he wants ONE BILLION active users, will tolerate ‘pretty outrageous tweets’ and ‘excellent staff’ can work from home ahead of his $44 billion takeover
- The all-hands meeting was set to start at 9 am PT but held an hour late
- The meeting, a Q&A, saw Musk speak to 7,500 employees from a shakily held smartphone, which he looked to be holding in his hand.
- Musk proposed prospective policies such as having users pay for verification
- The CEO said that only ‘excellent’ contributors are entitled to work from home
- He was not asked by staffers about his commitment to the looming Twitter deal
Elon Musk spoke to staffers at Silicon Valley tech giant Twitter for the first time Thursday, in a virtual meeting that saw the outspoken exec set plans for the company ahead of his $44 billion takeover.
The all-hands meeting, held just after 9 am PT, saw Musk speak to 7,500 employees from a shakily held smartphone, which he looked to be holding in his hand.
Arriving ten minutes late, Musk, 51, utilized a freewheeling Q&A format for the conference, where he addressed topics ranging from free speech, layoffs, and his preference for in-person work.
Musk also mused about the existence of aliens and other space civilizations during the hour-long talk, and affirmed his stance that the social media company should strive to help ‘civilization and consciousness.’
It was the billionaire’s first interaction with the company’s thousands of rank-in-file workers, whom he will likely soon take charge of if his buyout proves successful.
Elon Musk spoke to staffers at Silicon Valley tech giant Twitter for the first time Thursday, in a meeting that saw the exec set plans for the company ahead of his $44 billion takeover
It was the billionaire’s first interaction with the company’s thousands of rank-in-file workers, whom he will likely soon take charge of if his buyout proves successful
The Musk-led meeting, much like the man himself, served as an amalgam of both humor and substance.
In it, the South African mogul set the lofty goal of growing the site’s userbase to 1 billion monthly/daily active users – more than four times its current number of users.
The company said in its Q1 2022 earnings that it had 229 million users as of March.
He further told staff he wants to raise the service’s user numbers to at least a billion people and said advertising would remain important for the company, despite previously saying he believes Twitter should not serve ads, according to audio of the meeting heard by Reuters.
‘I think advertising is very important for Twitter,’ Musk said. ‘I’m not against advertising. I would probably talk to the advertisers and say, like, “hey, let’s just make sure the ads are as entertaining as possible.”‘
Twitter employees took to an internal Slack channel in droves during the session, posting memes and complaining that Musk was not providing useful answers on his vision for the business and employee compensation.
Reporters said Musk addressed topics ranging from free speech, layoffs, and his preference for in-person work during the hourlong call, held Thursday morning
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