By Jasmine Browley· Updated October 25, 2022
Elon Musk’s pending ownership of Twitter is coming with some painful consequences.
Earlier this month, it was widely reported that the billionaire has told prospective investors contributing to his Twitter purchase that he plans to do away with nearly 75% of Twitter’s employee base of 7,500 workers, leaving the company with a skeleton crew.
Although this news may seem late breaking, job cuts had been happening well before the pending ownership transfer.
“A 75% headcount cut would indicate, at least out of the gates, stronger free cash flow and profitability, which would be attractive to investors looking to get in on the deal,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives as reported by Fortune. “That said, you can’t cut your way to growth.”
This is particularly concerning since Black employees only make up 9% of Twitter’s US workforce.
Black professionals account for only 3.7% of technical roles at large tech companies like Twitter, despite making up 13% of the overall labor force. And this percentage increased by only 1% between 2014 and 2021, per a report from The Kapor Center and the NAACP.
As far as leadership and technical roles, the figures are even starker. Women make up 39% of Twitter leadership and Black employees make up 7.8 of Twitter leadership.
Musk’s acquisition has come with a great deal of controversy. After his initial $44 billion bid in April to buy the social media company. He reportedly backed out of the deal, stating that Twitter misrepresented the number of fake “spam bot” accounts it hosted on its platform. Twitter filed suit, and won, which led to both sides until Oct. 28 to work out an agreement.
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