As he negotiated a $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter Inc., Elon Musk told bankers that he would be focused on the social media company’s bottom line, and floated the idea of cutting both costs and jobs, according to people familiar with the matter.
On calls with teams of bankers before the deal was announced, Musk fielded questions on how he would generate financial returns at Twitter. While nothing is set in stone — and Musk himself had no access to Twitter’s nonpublic financials at the time — he specifically mentioned job cuts, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the details are private. He didn’t go into details about which departments or positions might be affected, the people said.
Musk also discussed ideas to monetize the platform and boost cash flow, including potential subscription services to drive recurring revenue, they said. While he’s said little publicly about how he plans to drive growth, he suggested earlier this month that he isn’t preoccupied with money. "I don’t care about the economics at all,” Musk said at a TED conference after making his offer to buy the company.