Elon Musk suggested cuts and hiring stars to help Twitter: Reports

• In conversations with bankers, Elon Musk came up with ideas to raise Twitter’s bottom line, reports say.
• But he did not share details, and the banks financed his Twitter acquisition deal because he had other assets.
• Musk’s private pitch to bankers contradicts his position that he does not care about Twitter’s profitability.

In conversations with bankers before taking Twitter privately, Elon Musk suggested cutting workers, inviting influencers to create content and introducing subscription services to improve Twitter’s bottom line, according to several news reports on Friday.

Musk also suggested making money from tweets and cutting executives and board salaries, according to reports from Bloomberg, the Washington Post and Reuters, all of which cite unnamed sources who knew about his fundraising work.

Musk approached bankers after announcing his takeover bid on April 14 and before Twitter’s board accepted his $ 44 billion proposal on April 26, Reuters reported.

Although Musk sent these ideas to bankers to improve Twitter’s bottom line, he did not include them in the formal plans presented to Twitter’s board, Bloomberg and Post reported. Instead, he said he wanted to make sure the deal was profitable, sources told Bloomberg.

Despite the lack of details, lenders still bought into Musk’s vision because the billionaire already owns several valuable assets that could be useful when taking out loans for the deal, Norway Post reported.

Musk’s behind-the-scenes conversations about the bottom line contradict his public statements about the Twitter purchase. Twitter is “not a way to make money,” Musk said at a live event on April 14, adding, “I do not care about finances at all.”

Musk has avoided sharing concrete plans for the social media platform. All he has said publicly is that he plans to add a “edit” feature, remove spam bots, open Twitter’s algorithm for changes and loosen up content moderation on the site.

Musk’s proposal to lay off employees is likely to increase the unrest that Twitter employees have felt since the news of Musk’s offer became public. Twitter boss Parag Agrawal said this week that no layoffs are planned, but some employees are already looking for a way out, Insiders Kali Hays reported.