Twitter CEO Elon Musk plans to eliminate one-quarter of the company’s workforce in his first round of layoffs and vowed to require users to pay to have a verified account. .The Washington Post reported on Monday celebrity lawyer Alex Spiro led the conversations about the job cuts. .Musk allegedly issued an ultimatum to Twitter’s engineers, telling them to revamp its verification system in about one week or be terminated. .Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter on Thursday, taking chief ownership of the company. .“The bird is freed,” he said. .He fired Twitter’s CEO, chief financial officer, head of legal, and general counsel when he assumed command. His Twitter bio has been changed to read Chief Twit. .The first round of layoffs will affect almost every department, and are expected to impact sales, product, engineering, legal, and trust and safety in the coming days. .A regulatory filing said Twitter had more than 7,000 employees at the end of 2021. .Musk denied a New York Times story about laying off Twitter employees before Tuesday to avoid stock grants due on the day. .He said he wanted to launch a pay-for-play verification system where verified users are charged $20 per month. .The problem is engineers had until Nov. 7 to launch the initiative or face being fired. Employees were told about the project on Sunday. .The price of verification is subject to change. It might cover additional features. .Since Musk first offered to buy Twitter, he made it clear he planned to shake up the social media platform.
