Musk denies Twitter layoff on Nov 1, says New York Times report ‘false’

Responding to a tweet from Eric Umansky, deputy managing editor of ProPublica, that said Musk was "making sure to fire people at Twitter before part of their year-end compensation kicks in on Tuesday", Musk said: "This is false."

San Francisco: ‘Chief Twit’ Elon Musk on Monday refuted reports that he planned to lay off Twitter employees before November 1 in order to stop them from receiving stock grants as part of their year-end compensation.

Responding to a tweet from Eric Umansky, deputy managing editor of ProPublica, that said Musk was “making sure to fire people at Twitter before part of their year-end compensation kicks in on Tuesday”, Musk said: “This is false.”

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He, however, didn’t give any further clarification.

The New York Times first reported that Musk was planning to lay off employees before Tuesday (November 1).

According to the report, the new Twitter boss may not have to pay these grants if he lays off employees before November 1.

The Tesla CEO is expected to reorganise Twitter and cut the workforce by a massive margin.

Previous reports said Musk would layoff 75 per cent (5,600 employees) of Twitter’s workforce.

Twitter has around 7,500 employees.

Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter last week, and fired top executives, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal, and policy chief Vijaya Gadde, among others.

He has casually mentioned laying off Twitter staff in his tweets, without mentioning any figure.

Twitter employees are still anxious about expected staff cuts as part of the takeover.

They had written an open letter to the board of directors and Musk, criticising his plans to lay off 75 per cent of the workforce.