Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday revealed that more than 6,000 people have lost their jobs at Twitter since he took over the company last October.
In a rare media interview with the BBC, the billionaire said Twitter has about 1,500 people on staff, down from 8,000 when he bought the social media platform in a $44 billion deal. The job cuts were painful but necessary, Musk said.
"The issue is like the company's going to go bankrupt if we do not cut costs immediately," he told the BBC, speaking from Twitter's San Francisco headquarters.
He explained that Twitter faced a "$3 billion negative cash flow situation" after he assumed ownership, as advertisers had fled the platform and sent revenues crashing.
TWITTER ‘NO LONGER EXISTS’ AS COMPANY OFFICIALLY MERGES WITH X CORP
"This is not a caring, uncaring situation. It's like if the whole ship sinks then nobody's got a job," Musk insisted.
"What would you do?" he asked his interviewer. "If you've four months to live, 120 days, in a hundred and 20 days you're dead, so what do you want to do?"
Twitter's communications department was one victim of Musk's drastic cost-cutting. The company now responds to inquiries from journalists with a poop emoji. Others were Twitter's former executive leadership, including those involved in censoring conservatives.
TWITTER-SUBSTACK FEUD HEATS UP AS ELON MUSK IS ACCUSED OF CENSORSHIP
After the mass firings, Musk indicated Twitter is close to breaking even. He claimed that most of the advertisers who left Twitter because of their concerns about hate speech have returned, though he did not give details.
Musk predicted that Twitter could become "cash flow positive" in the current quarter "if current trends continue." Because Twitter is a private company, information about its finances can't be verified.
Though Musk has lost money on Twitter — dropping from the world's richest man to only its second-richest — the eccentric billionaire initially told the BBC he wouldn't sell the social media platform for the same $44 billion he bought it for. But he later clarified he might sell the company if he had guarantees its next owner would share his commitment to "truth."
TWITTER'S WILD RIDE UNDER ELON MUSK – 1 YEAR LATER
"If I was confident that they would rigorously pursue the truth, then I guess I would be glad to hand it over to someone else," he admitted.
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
"I don't care about the money really, but I do want to have some source of truth that I can count on, and I hope that's our aspiration with Twitter, is to have a source of truth that you can count on," Musk said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
