Elon Musk plans to lay off most of Twitter’s workforce if and when he becomes owner of the social media company, according to a report by The Washington Post.
Musk has told prospective investors in his Twitter purchase that he plans to cut nearly 75% of Twitter’s employee base of 7,500 workers, according to Thursday's report.
If confirmed, the cuts would leave the company with a skeleton crew, according to the Post.
The newspaper cited documents and unnamed sources familiar with the deliberations.
San Francisco-based Twitter and a representative for Musk attorney Alex Spiro did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
While job cuts have been expected regardless of the sale, the magnitude of Musk's planned cuts are far more extreme than anything Twitter had planned.
Musk himself has alluded to the need to cull some of the company's staff in the past, but he hadn't given a specific number - at least not publicly.
Already, experts, nonprofits and even Twitter's own staff have warned that pulling back investments on content moderation and data security could hurt Twitter and its users.
With as drastic a reduction as Musk may be planning, the platform could quickly become overrun with harmful content and spam.
After his initial $44 billion bid in April to buy Twitter, Musk backed out of the deal, contending Twitter misrepresented the number of fake “spam bot” accounts on its platform.
Twitter sued, and a Delaware judge has given both sides until 28 October to work out details.
Otherwise, there will be a trial in November.
Additional reporting by The Associated Press.
