Elon Musk says he fired 80 percent of Twitter’s staff.

By Michelle Tu and Juliana Liu | CNN

Elon Musk He told the BBC in an unusual interview late Tuesday that the company had laid off more than 6,000 people at Twitter since the takeover.

I was quoted by Musk. The interview That social media platform now only has 1,500 employees. Less than 8,000 employed at the time of the acquisition. This reduction corresponds to approximately 80% of the company’s workforce.

The billionaire’s CEO told the British broadcaster at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters that it is “not fun at all” and can be “painful” at times.

The second richest man in the world said “drastic action” was needed when he came on board as the company faced a “negative $3 billion cash flow situation”. He left Twitter with only “four months to live”, he estimated.

‘It does not matter. [or] Carefree situation. It’s like if the whole ship sinks, no one will get a job,” Musk said.

Musk Bought Twitter for $44 billion last October.

After initially offering to take over the company in April 2022, he attempted to pull out of the deal, citing concerns about the number of bot accounts he had. He has since transformed Twitter: firing top executives, cutting jobs and legislation. New policy Authenticate or tag user accounts.

Since then, Twitter is now “almost breaking even” and advertisers are returning to the platform, he told the BBC.

Musk also pledged to review the label applied to British broadcasting from “government-funded” to “government-funded”, after the BBC objected.

The message has been added. on weekends. The BBC protested the move, saying it was “and always has been independent”.

“We are funded by the British public through licensing fees,” he said at the time.