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

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

In a shocking move, CEO Elon Musk has shut down two of its three Twitter India offices and asked the staff to work from home.

By: HT TECH
| Updated on: Feb 17 2023, 17:00 IST
Elon Musk Twitter Bankruptcy Talk: Timeline
Elon Musk
1/13 He’s told employees to brace themselves for long hours, that “the road ahead is arduous and will require intense work to succeed,” and said bankruptcy was possible. Here’s how the saga is unfolding: (Bloomberg)
Elon Musk
2/13 Oct. 27: Musk takes control- His first act is to fire the Board along with CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, head of legal Vijaya Gadde and Counsel Sean Edgett. Musk forms advisory team that includes celebrity attorney Alex Spiro, VC David Sacks, Neuralink CEO and head of Musk’s family office Jared Birchall, investor Jason Calacanis, and partner of Andreessen Horowitz Sriram Krishnan. (Reuters)
Elon Musk
3/13 Oct. 28: Brands begin to take pause- As Musk plans to unban accounts and says he will charge for user verification, advertisers suspend ads. (AFP)
Elon Musk
4/13 Oct. 31: Top tweeters protest- Amid murmurings of plans to charge existing verified accounts, author Steven King tweets, “$20 a month to keep my blue check? F**k that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.” (AFP)
Elon Musk
5/13 Nov. 1: Teams working around the clock- The product team works over the weekend on Musk’s idea to charge users for blue check marks. A photo of product director Esther Crawford sleeping on the floor of a conference room, trying to make the deadline, goes viral. Meanwhile, managers are asked to make lists of who can be fired. Employees print out their software code for review by Musk and engineers from Tesla, to determine if their contributions are worthy of keeping a job. (REUTERS)
Elon Musk
6/13 Nov. 3: Massive layoffs begin- A memo is sent to all employees telling them of imminent layoffs and to watch for an email with the subject line: “Your Role at Twitter.” Badge access to offices is suspended as 3,700 staffers receive word that they’ve been cut. Realizing employees essential for the continuity of the business have been let go by mistake, some are asked to come back. (AP)
Elon Musk
7/13 Co-founder EV Williams tweets, “Heart’s out to the tweeps getting laid off today.” Co-founder Jack Dorsey adds, “I realize many are angry with me. I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly. I apologize for that.” (REUTERS)
image caption
8/13 Nov. 5-6: Musk responds to celebrity protests- Unrest grows on the platform over the weekend, particularly over the issue of impersonator accounts. Actress Valerie Bertinelli starts a movement of people changing their Twitter names to “Elon Musk.” Comedian Kathy Griffin joins the protest, finds her account locked. Then Musk announces, “Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying `parody’ will be permanently suspended.” (AP)
Elon Musk
9/13 Nov. 8: Musk sells more Tesla- Despite a previous vow not to sell any more Tesla stock, Musk sells an additional $3.95 billion, bringing the total sold in past year to $36 billion. (REUTERS)
Elon Musk
10/13 Nov. 9: Musk Blue tick mark- Blue check mark option becomes available for purchase, and immediately becomes a tool for impersonators. An account masquerading as Nintendo Inc. posts an image of Super Mario holding up a middle finger. (REUTERS)
Elon Musk
11/13 Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, and a close cadre of advisers are considering a host of changes to the way Twitter is run and makes money. (REUTERS)
Elon Musk
12/13 Nov. 10: More key executives quit as Musk warns of bankruptcy- In his first meeting with employees, Musk tells them to brace for 80-hour weeks and requires everyone back in the office full time. He also says bankruptcy for the company is not out of the question if it doesn’t start generating more cash. Several executives in charge of keeping Twitter safe and accountable to its users quit, including chief information security officer Lea Kissner, chief privacy officer Damien Kieran and chief compliance Marianne Fogarty.. (AFP)
Elon Musk
13/13 Nov. 11: Verified accounts get “Official” tags- Twitter adds badges that say “offiical” to verified accounts in some places, though confusion abounds. More brands depart the platform. (REUTERS)
Elon Musk
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In an attempt to cut costs, CEO Elon Musk has shut down two of its Twitter India offices and asked the employees to work from home. (REUTERS)

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.

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First Published Date: 17 Feb, 16:59 IST
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