Category Archives: Elon Musk

US-China tension not much of a risk to Teslas ambitions, executive says  South China Morning Post

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US-China tension not much of a risk to Teslas ambitions, executive says - South China Morning Post

Elon Musk emailed his remaining employees at Twitter on Monday morning to tell them that, after another round of sudden layoffs over the weekend, those who are left will receive very significant performance-based stock awards on March 24th, according to an internal memo obtained by The Verge.

This past week, we completed a difficult organizational overhaul focused on improving future execution, using as much feedback as we could gather from the entire company, Musk wrote. Those who remain are highly regarded by those around them.

The short memo, titled Performance Awards, is Musks first communication to Twitter employees since he laid off hundreds more of them, including several senior loyalists and nearly all of the product team without warning over the weekend. (Platformers Zo Schiffer first tweeted about the memo.)

After several rounds of cuts and demanding that employees be extremely hardcore, Musk hasnt yet shared details about how he will make up for the stock awards that went away when he took Twitter private. In previous internal comments, he has alluded to the system he set up at SpaceX to let employees regularly sell the companys stock to interested investors. Given Twitters distressed financial situation relative to SpaceX, its unclear what the appetite for its stock will be in the short term.

I think hes just tearing this thing down to the studs

Meanwhile, Musk has made it difficult for the people who work at Twitter to know the full scope of his cuts. The companys internal directory has been offline since he took over. Last week, Musk shut down the ability for employees to use the companys Slack. After turning off Slack, Musk also disabled Google Chat for work emails without explanation a move that employees now think was intended to thwart internal communication during the layoffs.

Current and former employees Ive spoken to estimate that Twitters total headcount is well below 2,000 now versus the roughly 7,500 people on the payroll when Musk took over. As one employee who was just laid off told me, I think hes just tearing this thing down to the studs and trying to run as lean as possible till the market turns around.

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Elon Musk says Twitter employees will receive very significant stock ...

Elon Musk posted a feel-good inspirational tweet wishing his followers a good Sunday just a day after some 200 Twitter employees learned that they had lost their jobs.

Hope you have a good Sunday, the Twitter owner tweeted. First day of the rest of your life.

Musks tweet coincided with the news that 10% of the remaining workforce at Twitter has been cut including Esther Crawford, the loyal executive who bought into her new bosss extremely hardcore work ethos.

Crawford was famously photographed sleeping on the floor of her corporate office during the early days of Musks stewardship of the San Francisco-based company.

She managed to earn Musks trust a rarity for a Twitter manager who was a holdover from the old regime.

Hope you have a good Sunday.

First day of the rest of your life.

Crawford, who was put in charge of the Twitter Blue subscription service, was one of dozens of engineers and team managers to learn that they had been fired after attempts to log into their corporate computer systems failed, according to the tech-centered news site the Information.

A source with knowledge of the situation told the Information that Saturdays layoffs were timed so that Twitter will avoid payouts to those who wish to cash out unvested equity in company shares at their original $54.20 sales price.

Despite being ridiculed as sycophantic by Twitter users who thought her loyalty to Musk was for naught, Crawford was defiant and unapologetic about going all-in for her now-former boss.

The worst take you could have from watching me go all-in on Twitter 2.0 is that my optimism or hard work was a mistake, Crawford tweeted.

Those who jeer & mock are necessarily on the sidelines and not in the arena, she said, referencing a famous quote by Theodore Roosevelt.

The worst take you could have from watching me go all-in on Twitter 2.0 is that my optimism or hard work was a mistake. Those who jeer & mock are necessarily on the sidelines and not in the arena. Im deeply proud of the team for building through so much noise & chaos.

Im deeply proud of the team for building through so much noise & chaos.

Martijn de Kuijper, a senior product manager based in Holland, tweeted that he too learned of his dismissal when he was unable to log into his corporate computer system.

Waking up to find Ive been locked out of my email. Looks like Im let go, tweeted de Kuijper, who founded the Revue newsletter platform, which was later bought by Twitter.

Since completing his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter last fall, Musk has slashed the companys 7,000-plus-strong workforce by an eye-popping 70%.

As of Monday, there were roughly 2,000 employees remaining at the company.

Twitter has been in dire financial straits as ad revenues have plummeted in the weeks and months since Musk took over the company.

Earlier this month, Musk said his layoffs and restructuring of the company saved it from bankruptcy.

Twitter still has challenges, but is now trending to breakeven if we keep at it. Public support is much appreciated! Musk tweeted to his 130 million followers. He said the three months during which he had owned the company were extremely tough.

Musk added that Twitter is still definitely not financially healthy yet but was trending to be so in the future.

With Post wires

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Elon Musk tweets about 'good Sunday' as Twitter workers fired

1. Elon Musk is the richest person in the world again  CNN
2. Elon Musk Is The World's Richest Person Again, After Tesla Stock Rebounds  The Wall Street Journal
3. Elon Musk back in No. 1 spot on Bloomberg's billionaires list  Fox Business

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Elon Musk is the richest person in the world again - CNN

1. Fighting 'Woke AI,' Musk Recruits Team to Develop OpenAI Rival  The Information
2. Elon Musk recruits team to develop OpenAI's ChatGPT rival - The Information  Reuters
3. UPDATE 1-Elon Musk recruits team to develop OpenAI's ChatGPT rival - The Information  Yahoo Finance

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Fighting 'Woke AI,' Musk Recruits Team to Develop OpenAI Rival - The Information

1. Elon Musk says remaining Twitter employees will receive very significant stock awards on March 24th  The Verge
2. "They Forced Me To Buy It": Musk's Post On Twitter Deal Sparks Meme Fest  NDTV
3. More Twitter Staffers Axed Over Weekend; Elon Musk Tweets, Hope You Have A Good Sunday. First Day Of The Rest Of Your Life  Deadline

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Elon Musk says remaining Twitter employees will receive very significant stock awards on March 24th - The Verge

Why Elon Musk has unblocked everyone on Twitter and recommended others to do the same?  Republic World

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Why Elon Musk has unblocked everyone on Twitter and recommended others to do the same? - Republic World

A jury has found Elon Musk not guilty in the case of his tweet about taking Tesla private at $420 a share.

Five years later, this single tweet is still haunting the Tesla CEO.

For those who dont remember the situation, back in 2018, Musk briefly considered trying to bring Tesla private and disclosed his intentions to investors through a simple tweet.

The Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) ruled that Musk exaggerated and misled shareholders when saying that the funding was secured in the tweet:

Musk went on a campaign against the SEC, calling them names and claiming that they were working for people shorting the electric automaker. But ultimately, Tesla and Musk ended up reaching a settlement with the SEC.

As part of the settlement, Musk agreed to step down from the role of chairman of the board, and Tesla and Musk had to each pay $20 million in fines.

The CEO presumably didnt want Tesla to have to pay for his issue with the SEC. While he couldnt directly pay for Teslas part of the fine, he decided tobuy $20 million worth of shares from Tesla. That way, he sort of indirectly ended up paying for Teslas fine though he also ended up with ~71,000 additional Tesla shares in the process.

As we previously reported,Musk ended up actually making money from the settlementdue to Teslas stock price surging.

Another part of the settlement was that Musk and Tesla had to agree for the former to have his tweets reviewed by the latters legal department if they are material to the company.

Musk has consistently denied any wrongdoings and claimed he settled with the SEC under pressure from Tesla investors.

Separately, Tesla investors have sued Musk personally over the tweet, claiming that they were defrauded of millions of dollars as Musk exaggerated the claim that funding was secured.

The case was ongoing for years, but it was finally heard by a jury in northern Californialast week.

Today, the jury released its verdict finding Musk not liable for the investors losses.

Musk commented on the verdict:

Thank goodness, the wisdom of the people has prevailed! I am deeply appreciative of the jurys unanimous finding of innocence in the Tesla 420 take-private case.

Thats probably the end of this saga though Musk is still fighting some of the aspects of his settlement with the SEC, primarily the need to review his tweets that are material to Teslas stock.

Thats probably the right thing.

As we previously reported, all the evidence pointed to Musk being a bit too excited and jumping the gun with the tweet.

For him to be found liable, they would have to prove that he was intentionally planning to defraud investors, and thats a tall task.

He certainly should be more cautious about tweeting things like that when no deal has been signed, but I dont think its fraud.

However, youd hope that he would have become more cautious about his tweeting after this entire saga, but we havent seen much evidence of that either.

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Elon Musk found not guilty in the Tesla 420 take-private case

1. Elon Musk Wants to Charge Businesses on Twitter $1,000 per Month to Retain Verified Check-Marks  Variety
2. Advisory Firm Sues Elon Musks Twitter, Saying It Hasnt Been Paid  The New York Times
3. Elon Musk wants more money: charges corporations $1K per month to keep their Twitter gold checkmark  Marca English

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Elon Musk Wants to Charge Businesses on Twitter $1,000 per Month to Retain Verified Check-Marks - Variety

1. Elon Musk wins lawsuit over 'funding secured' tweet  CNN
2. For Elon Musk, Two Cases About His Tweets, and Two Victories  The Wall Street Journal
3. Jury Rules for Elon Musk and Tesla in Investor Lawsuit Over Tweets  The New York Times

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Elon Musk wins lawsuit over 'funding secured' tweet - CNN