According to a person familiar with the situation, Elon Musk acknowledged that bankruptcy was a possibility in his first speech to Twitter employees following his $44 billion acquisition of the company. Two executives who had previously been a part of Elon Musk’s new leadership team, Yoel Roth and Robin Wheeler, have resigned, according to a second person familiar with the situation who asked to remain anonymous because the information is private.
Mr Musk pushed out most of the social network’s top executive team when his acquisition closed last month.
Mr Roth had since taken over all of the social network’s Trust and Safety efforts, while Ms Wheeler, a sales vice president, had recently stepped up to oversee relations with jittery advertisers concerned about content.
The social network has a significant debt burden from the acquisition and has seen a pullback from some advertisers that are concerned about Mr Musk’s plans for content moderation. The Information and Platformer earlier reported Mr Musk’s bankruptcy statement.
In discussing Twitter’s finances and future, Mr Musk said the company needed to move with urgency to make its $8 subscription product, Twitter Blue, something users will want to pay for given the pull back by advertisers affecting revenue.
Mr Musk in an email late on Wednesday warned employees of “difficult times ahead”, with “no way to sugarcoat the message” about the economic outlook for the company. He ended employees’ ability to work remotely unless he personally approved it.
On Thursday, the changes resulted in several major advertisers getting impersonated by accounts with blue check marks, indicating verification.
Earlier, Twitter’s chief information security officer, chief privacy officer and chief compliance officer departed, raising concerns about the company’s ability to keep its platform secure and comply with regulatory rules.
Twitter is currently bound by a consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission that regulates how the company handles user data and could be subject to fines for breaches.
