Facts have proved that as long as the hole of lack of money is big enough, the richest man in the world will feel great pressure.
A few days ago, according to reports, people familiar with the matter revealed that the managing director of Musk’s family financial office is looking for new equity investors for Twitter, hoping to sell Twitter shares at a purchase price of US$54.2.
Jared Birchall, Musk’s fund manager, reached out to a number of potential investors this week, people familiar with the matter said.Reissue Twitter shares at the $54.20 per share purchase price Musk paid when he took Twitter private in October.
“In recent weeks, we have received a significant number of inbound requests to invest in Twitter. As a result, we are pleased to announce that we will issue additional shares of Twitter common stock at original price and terms, with the offering expected to close by the end of the year,” Birchall said.
However, for Twitter, the idea of selling shares at the original price is not realistic. Earlier, Musk himself admitted that he paid too much for Twitter. Today, Twitter has gone through a period of severe turmoil and is in a stage of declining value. It is obviously difficult to ask investors to pay the full price for the asset.
It is understood that after completing the acquisition of Twitter for US$44 billion on October 27, Musk sought to transform the company and carried out wave after wave of layoffs.
On November 4th, Twitter notified 50% of its employees by email to cut costs.Twitter has also laid off more than 90% of its workforce in India as part of the global layoffs.
In mid-November, foreign media also reported that 4,400 of the company’s 5,500 contract workers had been laid off. These fired contract workers were mainly responsible for content review and daily activities to maintain Twitter’s operation.
On November 16, Musk issued an ultimatum to Twitter employees, asking them to make a decision before 5 pm on November 17, or sign a guarantee to help him build “Twitter 2.0” – “long hours of high-intensity work” , and “only good performance is considered a pass”, or receive three months’ salary and leave the job.
Before Musk took over Twitter, the company had about 7,500 full-time employees. The number of employees at the company has been reduced to 2,300 following mass layoffs and resignations, a person familiar with the company’s operations said.