Shocking! Elon Musk shuts Delhi, Mumbai Twitter offices; Employees sent home

In a shock move, Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter has shut two of its three India offices today, February 17, as per reports. The move aligns with Musk's larger mission to cut costs and make the social media company more efficient and leaner. All the employees who were working in these two offices have been asked to work from home.

Last year, Twitter had fired more than 90% of its roughly 200-plus staff in India and now it has closed its offices in the capital of the nation,New Delhi and financial hub Mumbai, according to a report by Bloomberg. The company continues to operate an office in Bengaluru. This office houses mainly engineers, the report stated and highlighted that the report came from people declining to be identified as the information is private.

Twitter shuts down two offices in India

The billionaire CEO has fired staff and shut offices around the world as part of an effort to get Twitter financially stable by late 2023. But the move has come as a surprise since India is regarded as a key growth market for US tech giants from Meta Platforms Inc. to Alphabet Inc.’s Google, which are making long-term bets on the world’s fastest-growing internet arena.

India, on the other hand, has been leveraging Twitter heavily and it has evolved in past years into one of the most important public forums, home to heated political discourse and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 86.5 million followers.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment shared by Bloomberg.

An exodus of workers — many of whom were fired — since Musk’s acquisition has raised concerns about whether Twitter can sustain its operations and regulate content. Musk this week said he may need till the end of the year to stabilize the company and make sure it’s financially healthy. He also revealed that he would be leaving the CEO position by the end of the year.

Since the $44 billion buyout, Twitter has struggled to pay millions of dollars in rent for its San Francisco headquarters and London offices, been sued by multiple contractors over unpaid services and auctioned off everything from bird statues to espresso machines to raise money.

Musk has also openly floated the idea of bankruptcy, and cited a “massive drop” in revenue as advertisers fled over concerns about Twitter’s ability to weed out undesirable content. The platform has also experienced significant glitches and outrages, most recently just this month.

Twitter was also involved in controversy last week when it was alleged that Elon Musk asked his engineers to change the Twitter algorithm to get his tweets more visibility.