Elon Musk is hiring for Twitter, says he’s done with layoffs

(NewsNation) — Elon Musk is ready to hire at Twitter.

In a partially recorded all-hands meeting with Twitter staff obtained by The Verge Monday, the tech billionaire said he was done making cuts and is actively looking for people for engineering or sales roles, even asking current employees to make referrals.

“In terms of critical hires, I would say people who are great at writing software are the highest priority,” he said during the meeting.

The news comes amid myriad layoffs and resignations that began once Musk completed his $44 billion purchase of Twitter on Oct. 27.

Musk sent a letter to employees in early November saying they would find out by email if they had been laid off, citing cost and revenue challenges. Musk also went through several other rounds of cuts, including to Twitter’s sales and advertising teams

Then, after asking remaining staff to commit to an “extremely hardcore” work culture with “long hours and high intensity,” hundreds of other employees left, depleting the teams responsible for keeping the site up.  

Along with hiring, Musk said he had “no plans” to move Twitter’s headquarters to Texas, as he did with Tesla, though he said a “dual-headquartered” concept could make sense.

“If we want to move the headquarters to Texas, I think it would play into the idea that Twitter has gone from being left wing to right wing, which is not the case,” he told employees. “This is not a right-wing takeover of Twitter. It is a moderate-wing takeover of Twitter,” he reportedly said in the half-hour meeting.

The exact number of layoffs and departures is unclear. However, according to The Verge, only 2,700 people had access to Twitter’s internal systems, as opposed to the nearly 7,400 before he was hired.