OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The drama between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Twitter continues to change by the day.
An internal memo from Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal, which was obtained by Bloomberg, revealed that the social media giant will stop hiring new employees and implement cost-cutting measures.
Additionally, two of Twitter’s top executives are leaving the company ahead of Musk’s takeover of the corporation.
The memo also said Twitter will slash travel, consulting, and marketing expenses, according to Bloomberg.
“At the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, the decision was made to invest aggressively to deliver big growth in audience and revenue, and as a company, we did not hit intermediate milestones that enable confidence in these goals,” Agrawal wrote in the memo.
“In order to responsibly manage the organization as we sharpen our roadmaps and our work, we need to continue to be intentional about our teams, hiring and costs,” he said.
Here’s where things get interesting.
Musk announced early on Friday morning that his deal to purchase Twitter has been put “on hold.”
Musk tweeted that the deal was “on hold” in response to a story that showed Twitter claimed spam and bot accounts comprise less than 5 percent of its users.
“Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users,” he said.
Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of usershttps://t.co/Y2t0QMuuyn
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2022
Hours later he said, “Still committed to acquisition.”
Still committed to acquisition
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2022
“Twitter Inc estimated in a filing on Monday that false or spam accounts represented fewer than 5% of its monetizable daily active users during the first quarter,” the Reuters story said that Musk shared in his tweet.
“The social media company had 229 million users who were served advertising in the first quarter,” it said.
“The disclosure came days after Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk, who has inked a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion, tweeted that one of his priorities would be to remove spam bots from the platform,” it said.
Former President Donald Trump responded to Musk’s announcement on TRUTH Social, his new website, by saying he was skeptical that Musk wanted to buy Twitter at such an expensive price.
“There is no way Elon Musk is going to buy Twitter at such a ridiculous price especially since realizing it is a company largely based on BOTS or Spam Accounts. Fake anyone? By the time you get rid of them, if that can even be done, what do you have? Not much? If it weren’t for the ridiculous Billion-Dollar breakup fee, Elon would have already been long gone. Just my opinion, but Truth Social is MUCH better than Twitter and absolutely exploding, incredible engagement!” Trump wrote.
Below is a screenshot of Trump’s full response:
Earlier this week, Musk said he would reverse Twitter’s permanent ban of Trump if his bid to buy the social media company is successful.
Musk told the Financial Times that the ban “was morally wrong and flat out stupid.”
Last month, Trump said he “probably” would not return to Twitter if Musk reinstated his account.
In an interview with Sirius XM’s Americano Media, Trump said he “probably wouldn’t have any interest” in returning to the platform, where he had almost 90 million followers.
“You know, Twitter has become very boring. They’ve gotten rid of a lot of their good voices … a lot of their conservative voices,” Trump said.
