Elon Musk Says Twitter Will Try to Rehire Some of the 6,300 Employees He Fired, Defends Comparing Soros to Magneto

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Elon Musk, after dramatically slashing Twitter’s headcount following his takeover of the social platform, said the company will try to rehire some of them — acknowledging that the job cuts were too deep.

Musk has slashed Twitter’s headcount by about 80%, from 7,800 to about 1,500, as he has attempted to cut costs and get the company in the black. “Some people who were let go probably shouldn’t have been,” Musk said during an interview with CNBC anchor David Faber following the 2023 Tesla annual shareholder meeting Tuesday at the car maker’s headquarters in Austin, Texas. “Desperate times call for desperate measures… Unfortunately, if you do it fast, there are some babies who will be thrown out,” Musk said.

Twitter now will probably try to rehire some of the Twitter employees that were let go, he said. Musk spoke about Linda Yaccarino, the ex-NBCUniversal exec he just hired as CEO of Twitter, joining the company, saying that “Linda will operate the company and I will build products.” “Twitter is very much an advertising-dependent business, and Linda is obviously great at that,” Musk said. “My skills and interests are in technology.” About the dire financial situation the company was facing, Musk said, “It was really a very challenging situation when the Twitter deal closed.” He said the company had negative $3 billion cash flow and just $1 billion in cash on hand.

After Twitter’s board fought Musk’s takeover bid, it took him to court to hold him to the terms of his offer: “Basically they had a gun to my head saying, ‘No, you must acquire us!'” Faber asked Musk about the tech mogul’s tweets that lend credence to conspiracy theories, including Musk’s Monday evening tweet in which he said,