Twitter plans more layoffs as Musk considers next move • The Register

Twitter CEO Elon Musk is considering further layoffs — including distribution and commercial partnerships — as those left after an exodus of software developers enjoyed a “hardcore” weekend to join the tech industry veteran at a “code review.” ‘ to help the social media platform.

Reports suggest that positions in sales, partnerships and the like have now been threatened in a cull that has seen the majority of employees leave the company. According to Bloomberg, Musk called in the heads of the sales and business teams on Friday and asked them to lay off more people.

The news outlet claimed marketing and sales director Robin Wheeler and head of partnerships Maggie Suniewick were fired by Musk after they refused to comply with his request. Previously, Wheeler had decided to resign but was persuaded to stay.

On Wednesday, Musk told a Delaware court that his Twitter reorganization was nearly complete when the transition team, consisting of venture capitalists David Sacks, Jason Calacanis and Sriram Krishnan, stepped down.

Meanwhile, the software engineering team, or what’s left of it, had a busy Friday night.

Corresponding one of Musk’s tweetsreleased Saturday morning, the team had just performed a “code review,” complete with an architecture diagram of the platform.

The late-night session followed an ultimatum from Musk that employees had to confirm they would endure an “extremely harsh” work environment at 5 p.m. ET on Thursday. Those who did not come forward were told they would have to leave the company and receive three months’ severance pay. However, the legal status of the approach has been questioned.

Musk’s “hardcore” move was followed by an exodus of senior software engineers who followed those laid off since he joined the company. These include Senior Software Engineer Yao Yue, Software Engineer Sasha Solomon, and Backend Engineer Nick Morgan.

Earlier last week, another software engineer, Eric Frohnhoefer, was fired after criticizing Musk’s claim that the Twitter app “does >1000 poorly stacked RPCs just to render a home timeline.”

Musk’s more recent architecture photo clearly shows “remote procedure calls” several steps away from the app.

While some question the medium-term technical feasibility of Twitter, Musk continues to tweet memes of cryptic biblical nature and questionable sexual overtones.

Other moves by the divisive CEO include conducting an online poll to reinstate twice-indicted former US President Donald Trump, who was removed from the platform after allegedly inciting political violence in the run-up to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack against which Trump is still under investigation. Trump has not yet accepted the offer.

At the end of a busy week, Musk was presented with a “monument,” which is a four-legged image of himself riding a rocket. Apparently the statue is supposed to mean GOAT (Greatest of All Time) and looks more like Musk’s head stuck on a bad rendition of the Very Hungry Caterpillar. Why a group of crypto enthusiasts decided to build the $600,000 monstrosity remains unclear, but it illustrates the fact that just when the world looks like it couldn’t get any weirder, it does . ®