The 7,500 employees at Twitter have been preparing for mass layoffs since it became clear that entrepreneur Elon Musk bought the company.
“Go home and don’t come back”
According to The New York Times and the news agency Reuters, the layoffs will begin as early as Friday, according to an email that went out on Thursday.
Employees have been instructed on Thursday to go home and not return to the office on Friday.
“In an effort to get Twitter on the right course, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce,” reads the email, according to the newspaper, which is signed only with “Twitter.”
Advertisers take Twitter break
Major companies such as Volkswagen, Pfizer and General Mills are said to have stopped their advertising on Twitter. General Mills, with brands such as Cheerios and Häägen-Dazs, confirms the information for the company.
“As always, we will continue to monitor the new direction and evaluate our marketing costs,” a General Mills spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal.
General Motors was the first of the major advertisers to announce after the acquisition that it was taking an advertising break on Twitter.