‘You’re fired’: 3,700 Twitter employees are sent email terminating their employment

Chief Twit Elon Musk has described trying to get out of his $44billion Twitter deal as like a ‘scene from the Godfather’ in a speech in front of New York’s wealthiest investors before he fired 3,700 staff by email. 

Almost half of the workforce of the social media giant received the blunt email telling them they are fired – will remain on the payroll until at least January as he skirts California’s tough workers laws. 

The world’s richest man rocked up at the Baron Investment Conference at the Metropolitan Opera House in Manhattan after posting a furious message to woke users who caused a ‘massive drop in revenue’ before the purge in staff hit their inboxes. 

He said it was ‘extremely messed up’ and accused them of ‘trying to destroy free speech in America’ despite what he said were his best efforts to ‘appease’ the campaigners.

Twitter employees have started to receive the email to let them know whether they are among half the workforce set to be culled on Friday – at 4pm GMT, 12pm EST and 9am PST.

Those who were selected to stay have been informed that the office will remain closed until November 7th, and have been urged to ‘refrain from discussing confidential company information.’ 

Additionally they will be told of Musk’s ‘vision for the company’ in the coming days, with ‘more information’ to be shared next week. 

Anyone who has found themselves out of a job has been told that they will continue to be employed by Twitter until either January or February 2 next year, depending on their role, though November 4 will be their last working day at the company. 

They are not expected to work, and will have their access to Twitter systems deactivated – though some employees reported being kicked out of their accounts almost 12 hours before. 

Musk joked about overpaying for Twitter during a surprise appearance at a conference as emails started rolling out to inform staff of mass layoffs.

Speaking at the Baron Investment Conference, the billionaire said that him trying to get out of the deal was like a ‘scene from the Godfather’.

He said: ‘I mean I think most people would say, given how market has evolved this year, the price is on the high side.’

Musk laid out his plan for the future of the company, saying that the layoffs should save them $400 million a year, and doubled down on his plans to charge verified users $8 a month.

The Tesla CEO said that recouping the money he spent on the company would be ‘very difficult to achieve’ but added he believes that Twitter will ‘become one of the most valuable companies in the world.

Billionaire Ron Baron runs the event, and when he was asked about the cuts he said: ‘There’s a lot of people there that aren’t very productive. They work from home. They haven’t written much code.’

An internal memo sent to staff who have been fired instructs them that they are still expected to comply with the employee playbook and code of conduct while they remain on gardening leave. 

It added: ‘Within a week, you will receive details of your severance offer, financial resources extending beyond your Non-Working Notice period. 

‘At that time you will also receive a Separation Agreement and Release of Claims and other offboarding.’

The company has reportedly fired 85 per cent of their employees in India and 90 per cent of those in Asia, with public relations and communications teams down to two people. 

According to the Wall Street Journal some staff were told that they would have a separation date in January, rather than February.

They were also informed that they would receive one month’s base pay in severance approximately 45 days after the termination date, in addition to providing instructions for returning company property such as laptops.

It is unclear if employees should expect to receive their year-end bonuses, which historically have been based on individual and company performance.

An internal memo revealed last night the Tesla billionaire was set to sack 3,700 staff from the social media giant in a bid to slash costs by $1billion.

Workers took to the platform late Thursday and early Friday to vent their fury at the new CEO, with some trying to tell the billionaire businessman his actions were ‘no way to run a firm’.

But one shareholder broke cover to reveal his delight at the move, saying the company had been ‘grossly mismanaged’, was a ‘weapon for the Democrat party’ and Musk was ‘retooling for business’.

Nick Flor, a shareholder of the social media giant, claimed that their profit this year was a negative 270 million and praised the richest man in the world for the massive layoffs after his dramatic $44billion takeover.

Flor claims that the company was ‘grossly mismanaged’ before it was taken over by the billionaire and was ‘mainly used as a political weapon for the Democrat party.

An internal memo revealed last night the Tesla billionaire was set to sack 3,700 staff from the social media giant in a bid to slash costs by $1billion.

Workers took to the platform late Thursday and early Friday to vent their fury at the new CEO, with some trying to tell the billionaire businessman his actions were ‘no way to run a firm’.

But one shareholder broke cover to reveal his delight at the move, saying the company had been ‘grossly mismanaged’, was a ‘weapon for the Democrat party’ and Musk was ‘retooling for business’.

Nick Flor, a shareholder of the social media giant, claimed that their profit this year was a negative 270 million and praised the richest man in the world for the massive layoffs after his dramatic $44billion takeover.

Flor claims that the company was ‘grossly mismanaged’ before it was taken over by the billionaire and was ‘mainly used as a political weapon for the Democrat party.

He added: ‘That’s no way to run a BUSINESS.’

It was a response to a claim that Musk had launched an ‘all out war’ on his staff with ‘no formal notice’, with US staff filing a class-action lawsuit against their former employer.

Staff were seen outside the offices in New York on Friday morning looking weary and unsure, as some gathered after they tried to gain access to the building.

Musk has given some employees 91 days notice of his intention to end their contracts, after the email for an email with the subject ‘Your Role at Twitter’ to drop into their inboxes today. 

Staff in London and Manchester received the news in the same way, at 4pm local time in the UK, with many finding themselves locked out of their accounts when they woke up.

Members of staff reported being logged out of their work accounts and locked out of laptops while the company sealed offices for all of its employees.

Sacked workers are suing Musk for not giving enough notice of the mass job cuts –  though the lawsuit was launched before he sent the full details to the employees. 

Some posted sentimental messages to the platform after being told they were to be unemployed.

Offices in the UK and US were shut down for the day by Musk, who warned employees that their buildings would be locked and all staff badge access will be suspended in order ‘to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data.’ 

As part of his plan to drive down costs at the company the world’s richest man announced the cuts internally with an email, as employees banded together on internal channels to say goodbye. 

Workers said the company eliminating workers without enough notice is in violation of federal and California law citing a class-action lawsuit filed in a San Francisco federal court.

The class action lawsuit filed on Thursday alleged that Twitter is in violation of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act after some employees were already laid off.

It requires and employer with more than 100 employees to provide 60 days’ advance written notice prior to a mass layoff ‘affecting 50 or more employees at a single site of employment’.

But Musk has seemingly got around the issue, by allowing workers to remain on the books until February 2 – which is in 91 days time.

He also confirmed that the company would be in contact with those who have been sacked to discuss their severance pay.  

The class-action lawsuit was filed by Shannon Liss-Riordan, who sued Musk’s electric car company Tesla Inc. over similar claims in June, when it laid off around 10 percent of its workforce.

She said: ‘We filed this lawsuit tonight in an attempt the make sure that employees are aware that they should not sign away their rights and that they have an avenue for pursuing their rights.’

As the layoffs began, sacked Twitter employees posted on the platform under the ‘#OneTeam’ hashtag about their final hours at the company, expressing a mixture of anger and sadness, and gratitude for their time working there.

Simon Balmain, whose Twitter profile said he was a ‘former Senior Community Manager’ at the company, wrote: ‘Looks like I’m unemployed y’all. Just got remotely logged out of my work laptop and removed from Slack. #OneTeam forever. Loved you all so much. So sad it had to end this way.’

He said he received an email saying there would be mass layoffs, ‘and then around an hour later, folks started getting their laptops remotely wiped and access to Slack and Gmail revoked.’

Another user named Johann told his followers: ‘Heya I just lost access to all my Twitter logins so I guess that’s it.’

Another by the name of Miryam wrote: ‘Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.’ She wrote the message along-side a picture of her posing in front of a large blue Twitter bird mounted on a wall at the offices.

Karen Zapata, another employee, posted a picture of her laptop screen, having been locked out. ‘This gray screen could have been a meeting,’ she wrote – suggesting she was unhappy with how impersonal the sacking was.

One Twitter employee shared a selfie of her and two other colleagues in an elevator which she wrote was at Twitter’s New York City offices. ‘Last teary eyed @TwitterNYC elevator selfie,’ she wrote. The employee, named Rena, also posted that she had been ‘logged out’ of the Twitter Slack channels and her email account.

Rumman Chowdhury, another employee, shared a screenshot showing she had been locked out of her emails. Several other users reported experiencing the same black-out.

Some wrote how Twitter employees spent their final hours talking on the company’s Slack (an internal business instant messaging app), sharing memories while waiting to hear whether they would lose their jobs or not. 

Head of Safety and Integrity Yoel Roth posted his condolences to those who had been laid off – and is currently the only executive member of Twitter staff to publicly acknowledge the layoffs.

He said: ‘Tweeps: My DMs are always open to you. Tell me how I can help.’

Kushal Dave is one of the only employees to say that he is ‘happy’ to be laid off, but was quick to slam Musk for the way he conducted his takeover – calling him ‘Voldemort’.

He said: ‘Honestly happy to be laid off but the veil of Elon Musk is pierced. As messy as Twitter was pre-Elon, it is a veritable clowntown of politics and toadyism and psychological abuse now.

‘Afraid to get in my Tesla with what I learned this week. And extremely p***** for the people who were on the wrong side of Elon’s court intrigue.

‘This isn’t a game. Also just bad decision making as a business owner.’

Twitter had a global workforce of some 7,500 employees at the end of 2021.

Musk started his cull last week when he took over the company by firing former CEO Parag Agarwal as well as top finance and legal executives. 

Others, including those sitting atop the company’s advertising, marketing, and human resources divisions, departed throughout the past week. 

The company said its offices will be temporarily sealed and all staff badge access will be suspended in order ‘to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data.’

Staff reported access to their email and other communication software – such as Slack – had been cut, with little or no warning. They also reported being remotely logged out of laptops, which were wiped of data.

Employees in London reported losing access overnight, finding they were unable to log in on Friday morning.

Workers in the UK have been joining trade unions in an effort to protect their employment rights after the mass cuts were announced.   

Mike Clancy, General Secretary of Prospect, a UK-based trade union said it has seen an influx of sign-ups from Twitter employees over the last week. 

Clancy called on the UK government to ensure that Twitter doesn’t become a ‘digital P&O,’ referring to the ferry company that cut 800 jobs in March.

He said: ‘Twitter is treating its people appallingly. We are supporting our members at Twitter and will be working with them to defend them and their livelihoods.’

Prior to buying Twitter, Musk tweeted that the company under his ownership ‘will be super focused on hardcore software engineering, design, infosec & server hardware.’

Last week he lamented in a tweet that ‘there seem to be 10 people ‘managing’ for every one person coding.’

The layoffs, which were long expected, have chilled Twitter’s famously open corporate culture that has been revered by its employees.

Shortly after the email landed in Twitter employee inboxes, hundreds of people flooded the company’s Slack channels to say goodbye, two employees told Reuters. Someone invited Musk to join the channel, the sources said.

In an email, staff were told to ‘return home’ if they were in an office or on their way to go to work. 

It stated: ‘In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday.

‘We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward.’

The email concluded acknowledging that it will be ‘an incredibly challenging experience to go through’ for the workforce. 

Staff at Twitter’s offices in Australia received the email at 1am on Saturday telling them whether or not they have been sacked.

British staff were asleep when their laptops were ‘remotely wiped’ and their access to Slack and Gmail revoked, according to one staffer. 

Thousands of workers, who are describing themselves as ‘ex-Tweeps’ have taken to social media to share their thoughts on the sackings.

Yash Agarwal, 25, posted a picture of himself at the twitter offices, adding: ‘Just got laid off. Bird App, it was an absolute honour, the greatest privilege ever to be a part of this team, this culture.’

Rachel Bonn posted a picture of her last day in the San Francisco office, saying: ‘Last Thursday in the SF office, really the last day Twitter was Twitter.

‘8 months pregnant and have a 9-month-old. Just got cut off from laptop access.’

The notification of layoffs caps off a week of high-level purges by Musk, as he demanded deep cost cuts and imposed an aggressive new work ethic across the social media company.

Musk wavered throughout his attempt to buy Twitter on how many positions he would eliminate, originally saying as many as 75 percent of the company’s workers (5,625) would be cut, before some reports suggested it would actually be 25 percent (1,875).

The 3,700 cuts amount to about half the staff, and would see them follow out five high-level executives who have resigned in the past week. 

The layoffs, which were long expected, have chilled Twitter’s famously open corporate culture that has been revered by its employees.

Musk’s first week as Twitter’s owner has been marked by chaos and uncertainty. Two company-wide meetings were scheduled, only to be canceled mere hours later. 

Managers have been forbidden from calling team meetings or communicating directly with staff, one senior Twitter employee said, adding that they were being monitored.

‘It feels like we’re working among the Gestapo,’ the person said.

Musk has installed a group of his loyalist friends in the days after removing the top executives at Twitter, surrounding himself with his trusted inner circle.

He put his personal lawyer and tech investors David Sacks and Jason Calacanis into the company, though it is not clear exactly what their roles will be going forward.

Alex Spiro, a trial attorney, is also part of the team and is understood to have led the first round of Twitter layoffs of the CEO and CFO.

The inner circle is then completed with investor Sriram Krishnan, a former Twitter product leader, and Jared Birchall who heads up Musk’s family office.

Musk has also directed Twitter Inc’s teams to find up to $1bn in annual infrastructure cost savings, according to two sources familiar with the matter and an internal Slack message.

Even as Musk cuts costs, he faces threats to Twitter’s revenue as a growing number of companies pause their advertising on the platform over concerns about whether it will remain ‘safe’ for brands.

‘We have currently paused paid support on Twitter and will continue to evaluate the situation,’ an Audi spokesperson told DailyMail.com on Thursday, one week after the completion of Musk’s $44 billion buyout. 

Likewise, a spokesperson for General Mills, which also makes Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, and Häagen-Dazs, confirmed a pause, saying: ‘We will continue to monitor this new direction and evaluate our marketing spend.’

Carmakers appear especially worried about fair treatment under Musk, who is the CEO of rival Tesla, and last week General Motors announced it had ‘temporarily paused’ all paid advertising on Twitter. 

As well, Oreo-maker Mondelez International and pharmaceutical giant Pfizer have both paused their Twitter ad spending, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing people familiar with the matter.

Spokespersons for Mondelez and Pfizer did not immediately respond to requests for comment from DailyMail.com on Thursday evening. 

Twitter has stopped responding to all press inquiries, except for the few that Musk answers by tweet. 

Musk last week promised advertisers he would keep Twitter from turning into a ‘free-for-all hellscape’ and is now scrambling to convince advertisers that he will uphold the commitment.

Some advertisers have reportedly vowed to boycott Twitter for good if former president Donald Trump is allowed to return. Musk said on Wednesday it would be several weeks before a process is in place to reinstate banned accounts. 

A media buyer at one major ad agency, who declined to be named for fear of reprisal, said the agency would meet with Musk this week to ask how the Tesla boss plans to handle misinformation on the social media platform.

The buyer also wanted to know how Musk’s pledge squared with his own actions, including one tweet over the weekend that spread a baseless conspiracy theory about the attack against US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul.

Other topics include Musk’s plan to raise the cost of Twitter’s subscription service and serve ‘half as many ads,’ and who will serve as advertisers’ point of contact after a procession of senior executives, including Twitter’s ad chief, left the company since he took over.

The ad agencies’ top clients are expected to join the meeting, the media buyer said.

After tweeting in 2019 about his dislike of advertising, Musk is now under pressure to avoid alienating the advertisers who contribute more than 90 percent of Twitter’s revenue. 

 

He is spending his first week as CEO in New York, with venture capitalist friends joining him in meetings to reassure companies that contribute more than $5 billion annually to Twitter.

Jason Calacanis, an angel investor and podcast host who is assisting Musk in his first week of ownership, tweeted on Monday that Twitter had a ‘very productive day’ of meetings with advertisers and marketers.

Another media buyer who spoke with Reuters said their agency will not meet with Musk until he articulates a direction for Twitter or provides a substantive update on how the platform will serve advertisers.

Some clients have already begun to pause ad spending on Twitter this week, said the second media buyer, who declined to name the advertisers as the source was not authorized to do so.

The buyer said some clients had already pulled out of Twitter due to the months-long chaos around the deal, and some in response to concerns about child sexual abuse material on Twitter.

IPG, an advertising holding company that represents major clients including Coca-Cola and American Express, has advised clients to pause their Twitter ads for the next week, according to a person familiar with the matter. 

Even as Musk took meetings with major agencies and advertisers this week, he took to Twitter on Wednesday night with a poll asking users whether advertisers should support freedom of speech or ‘political correctness.’ 

Of more than two million votes, nearly 80 percent answered ‘freedom of speech.’

‘Those type of provocations are not helping to calm the waters,’ the media buyer said.

More marketers also took to LinkedIn to voice their concerns about Musk’s takeover of the platform.

‘Unless Elon hires new leaders committed to keeping this ‘free’ platform safe from hate speech, it’s not a platform brands can/should advertise on,’ said Allie Wassum, global director of social and integrated media for Jordan shoe brand, which is owned by Nike, in a post on Linkedin.

Wassum did not respond to a request for further comment.

In addition to cutting Twitter staff, another idea Musk has pitched is a charge for the platform’s iconic blue tick – the mark used to identify verified users – claiming the move will end the current ‘lords and peasants’ system.

The ‘badges’ could go live as soon as Monday, Bloomberg reported, with current blue check holders receiving a ‘grace period’ of multiple months before being forced to either pay or lose the badge, which is as a verification mark for high-profile users.

Musk’s touted move has been criticised by some, who say key users of the platform create the content that gives it value. Others have said previous attempts by companies to monetise something previously free have seldom been successful.

He originally suggested $20 a month for verification but appeared to lower the cost after an exchange earlier this week with horror writer Stephen King, where he offered him a discount.

The billionaire is looking to make good on his promise to make the social media platform turn a profit by introducing a charge for Twitter users wanting to keep their verification badge.

Musk suggested publishers who are ‘willing to work’ with Twitter will get a ‘paywall bypass’ and social media stars will also be getting a secondary heading like politicians. Content creators will also get rewarded through a revenue stream.

‘You get what you pay for,’ the father-of-eight tweeted on Wednesday. He also celebrated ‘being attacked by both the right and left simultaneously,’ calling it a ‘good sign.’  

But in a sign that the price might not be a done deal, Musk responded to a tweet from the author of The Shining complaining about the new charge.

‘$20 a month to keep my blue check? F*** that, they should pay me,’ wrote King, who has 6.9 million followers. ‘If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.’

The rise of Chief Twit: How Elon Musk seized control of Twitter in dramatic $44 BILLION takeover that sparked liberal meltdown and ends with HALF its 7,500 staff out of a job 

By Lewis Pennock 

Elon Musk‘s $44 billion Twitter purchase has been a takeover like no other – marked by U-turns, court battles, weed jokes… and poo emojis.  

The unorthodox Tesla billionaire’s radical overhaul of the company begins today – seven months after the chaotic saga began.

Musk will fire half of its 7,500 staff on Friday as he begins to realize his ‘grand vision’ for Twitter.

The company’s offices in London, San Francisco and New York have been locked down – with staff passes suspended and work laptops deactivated – to minimize the risk of disgruntled employees taking retaliatory action.

The firm’s ‘Musk era’ began in April, when he became its largest shareholder.

Seven months of chaos followed. This is how the world’s most talked-about corporate takeover unfolded.

April 4 – Musk becomes largest shareholder after buying $2.9 billion stack 

On April 4, Musk became Twitter’s largest shareholder when he bought a nine percent stake for $2.9 billion.

Days earlier, he had floated the idea of launching his own social media site – triggering speculation his stock purchase was the first step towards a takeover.

At the time, the Tesla chief already had a reputation for bizarre antics on the platform, not least through bizarre posts that hurt (and helped) the stock price of his own companies.

The day after his share purchase, the company said Musk would join its board. 

Former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, who was given the boot days after the takeover, was ‘excited’.

Then, cue the chaos.

On April 11, Agrawal said Musk wouldn’t be joining the board after all. The about turn was the first of many – and marked the beginning of a fractious relationship between the pair.

April 14 – Social media giant unsure if weed-inspired offer is serious

Musk offered to purchase Twitter on April 14 for $54.20 per share (which valued the company at $44 billion).  

But Twitter wasn’t sure whether he was serious – partly because he’d included a reference to marijuana in his offer.

The ‘420’ part was a nod to the code for smoking weed. To add to his bizarre joke, Musk filed documents related to his offer on April 20 – abbreviated as 4/20.

A day after the bid, on April 15, Twitter’s board launched a so-called ‘poison pill’ strategy that would make it more difficult for Musk to takeover the company.

The tactic, formally known as a shareholder rights plan, would dilute anyone amassing a stake of more than 15% in the company by selling more shares to other shareholders at a discount.

April 25 – Musk beats down Twitter’s ‘poison pill’ and fear from woke staff 

Despite Twitter’s ‘poison pill’ and disquiet among staff, the board accepted the $54.20-a-share offer to take the company private on April 25.

Musk’s vision was becoming clear – sparking much concern in some liberal circles.

In a widely-shared statement, he said: ‘Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.’

He also floated new features like ‘authenticating all humans’ and hinted Donald Trump would be unbanned. 

Liberals were unnerved – some feared Twitter would become a hub for sharing the right-wing views they found so distasteful. 

By May 5, Musk had secured $7 billion in additional funding for the purchase. 

Investors included a Saudi prince, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and cryptocurrency platform Binance.

The stock price was gradually rising as hungry investors followed the buyout with interest. 

May 13 – But Tesla CEO puts deal on ice ‘temporarily’ due to huge number of spambots 

On May 13, Musk tweeted that deal was ‘temporarily on hold’.

He was responding to a filing buy the company nearly two weeks earlier that said fewer than five percent of its users were false or spam accounts.

Musk wanted ‘details supporting the calculation’.

The billionaire said he was ‘still committed’ to the takeover – but his unorthodox approach to the deal was becoming clear.

A few days later, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal wrote a lengthy, carefully thought-out thread on the site about the company’s commitment to tackling spam.

Musk’s response? A poo emoji.

He also continued to publicly air his concerns about bots on Twitter – and said a poll which found Agrawal ‘dishonest’ was ‘interesting’.

 

June 6 – Elon calls in the lawyers: Musk accuses Twitter of ‘material breach’ over the deal and threatens to walk away 

On June 6, Musk’s lawyers accused Twitter of a ‘material breach’ of its obligations around the deal – and he threatened to walk away from it entirely.

A letter sent to Twitter’s chief legal officer, Vijaya Gadde, reiterated Musk’s request for details on bot accounts – and said the company was in a ‘clear material breach’ of its obligations by not providing him with the information.

The following week, on June 16, Musk met Twitter staff for the first time and gave an online address which focused on freedom of speech.

He laid out ambitions to quadruple its user base to 1 billion and made lofty statements about how the platform could help humanity ‘better understand the nature of the universe’.

Some staff were unnerved by his vision to upend the company’s work from home policy.

July 8 – Musk ‘terminates’ buyout due to number of spambots on site as legal battle escalates 

The ongoing spat about spam accounts culminated on July 8 with Musk’s lawyers announcing he was ‘terminating’ the deal.

Musk also said he was walking away because Twitter fired high-ranking executives and one-third of the talent acquisition team.

This breached Twitter’s obligation to ‘preserve substantially intact the material components of its current business organization’.

Twitter chairman Bret Taylor, who’s since been expunged, doubled down on the company’s commitment to ‘closing the transaction’ – and said the board was confident it would win a court fight to ‘enforce’ the deal.

On July 12, the company lodged its lawsuit in Delaware, where it is incorporated, and tore into Musk for ‘bad faith’.

They said: ‘Musk refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests.

‘Musk apparently believes that he — unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law — is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away.’

Musk’s response? ‘Oh the irony lol,’ he tweeted.

Weeks later, Twitter blamed a fall in revenue on the chaos.

July 29 – Tesla chief launches countersuit – accusing Twitter of ‘misrepresentations’ about user numbers

 Musk accused Twitter of fraud in a countersuit over his aborted $44 billion deal for the social media company.

He claimed Twitter held back necessary information and misled his team about the true size of its user base.

The countersuit alleged Twitter committed fraud, breach of contract and violation of a securities law in Texas, where Musk lives.

Musk’s attorneys argued Twitter’s ‘misrepresentations or omissions’ distorted the company’s value and caused Musk to agree in April to buy it at an inflated price.

They said Twitter’s own disclosures revealed that it has 65 million fewer ‘monetizable daily active users’, who can be shown digital ads, than the 238 million that Twitter claims.

September 7 – Billionaire suffers court setback as judge says delaying trial would ‘risk further harm to Twitter’

 On September 7, a judge ruled Musk couldn’t delay the impending trial over his attempt to walk away the $44 billion deal.

Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of Delaware’s Court of Chancery said allowing the case to drag on would ‘risk further harm to Twitter’.

Musk’s legal team had argued that justice demanded delaying the five-day trial it could investigate claims by a whistleblower that Twitter hid weaknesses in its security and data privacy.

October 4 – Musk U-turns and confirms he WILL push ahead with $54.20-a-share offer

 Lawyers for Musk filed documents on October 4 that confirmed he was ready to push ahead with the $54.20-a-share offer first made in April.

But his offer was subject to an adjournment of the Delaware trial and the securing of debt financing.

The following day, Judge McCormick again declined to postpone the trial – piling on pressure to get the deal over the line.

In subsequent days, the legal drama continues, as Musk’s lawyers accused Twitter of ‘not taking yes for an answer’.

A filing on October 13 also says Musk is under federal investigation over his handling of the takeover.

October 26 – Musk confirms takeover is on with sink stunt at Twitter HQ: ‘Chief Twit… let that sink in’

After weeks of turmoil, Musk essentially confirmed he’d closed the deal to buy Twitter by sharing a video of himself carrying a sink into its San Francisco headquarters.

The world’s richest man captioned the clip: ”Entering Twitter HQ — let that sink in!’

He changed his Twitter profile’s location to ‘Twitter HQ’ and his biography to ‘Chief Twit’.

The pantomime gesture was just two days ahead of the court-ordered deadline to complete the $44 billion takeover.

Days earlier, details had emerged of his plan to fire up to 75 percent of staff if the deal got over the line.

October 28 – It’s official: The deal is done and Musk wastes no time wielding the axe 

Musk took ownership of Twitter on October 28.

Within hours top executives were fired and he tweeted: ‘The bird is freed.’

He immediately fired the CEO, chief financial officer, head of legal, and general counsel.

November 4 – Judgement day as staff learn who’ll be let go, with 3,700 expected to face the chop

Twitter staff brace for a jobs bloodbath with Musk set to cull 3,700 workers around the world.

The cuts amount to around half of the workforce, with staff at the social media giant set to discover their fates at 9am PST.

Those in the San Francisco building are anxiously waiting for an email with the subject ‘Your Role at Twitter’ to drop into their inboxes by 9am today, while those in New York will find out their fates at 12pm.