In meetings with Twitter executives, Musk was direct. At the Oct. 28 meeting with human resource executives, he said he wanted to reduce the workforce immediately, before a Nov. 1 date when employees would receive regularly scheduled retention bonuses in the form of vested stock. Tech companies often compensate employees with regular share grants, earned over time the longer they stay at the firm.One Twitter team began creating a financial model to show the cost of the layoffs. Another built a model to demonstrate how much more Musk might pay in legal fees and fines if he proceeded with the rapid cuts, three people said.
On Oct. 30, Musk received word that the rapid approach could cost millions of dollars more than laying people off with their scheduled bonuses. He agreed to delay, four people said.
But he had a condition. Before paying the bonuses, Musk insisted on a payroll audit to confirm that Twitter’s employees were “real humans.” He voiced concerns that “ghost employees” who should not receive the money lingered in Twitter’s systems.Musk tapped Robert Kaiden, Twitter’s chief accounting officer, to conduct the audit. Kaiden asked managers to verify that they knew certain employees and could confirm that they were human, according to three people and an internal document seen by the Times.
The Nov. 1 bonus date came and went with no mass layoffs. Kaiden was fired the next day and marched out of the building, five people with knowledge of the situation said.
A trip to New York
As Twitter managers compiled lists for layoffs, Musk flew to New York to meet with advertisers, who provide the bulk of Twitter’s revenue.
In some advertiser meetings, Musk proposed a system for Twitter users to choose the kind of content that the service exposed them to — akin to G to NC-17 movie ratings — implying that brands could then target their advertising on the platform better. He also committed to product improvements and more personalization for users and ads, two people with knowledge of the discussions said.
But his outreach was undercut by the departures of two New York-based Twitter executives — Berland and JP Maheu, a vice president in charge of advertising. They were well known in the advertising community.
Those Twitter executives “had great relationships with the senior-most people at the Fortune 500 — they were incredibly transparent and inclusive,” said Lou Paskalis, a longtime advertising executive. “Those things engender tremendous trust, and those things are now in question.”
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